Nine Years of Data Tell a Story
Since 2016, Massachusetts schools have reported over 69,000 restraint incidents. The COVID-19 pandemic created a temporary drop to 2,781 incidents in 2020-21, but rates have rebounded sharply - 2024-25 saw 8,425 incidents statewide, the second highest in the dataset.
The Suppression Problem
DESE publishes school-level restraint data annually, but with critical caveats: cells are suppressed (shown as a dash) when fewer than 6 students are restrained at a school. This means thousands of restraint incidents across hundreds of schools are invisible in the published data. Schools that report zero restraints are simply not listed at all. The published data systematically underrepresents the true scope of restraint use in Massachusetts.
Which Schools Use Restraints Most?
The data reveals stark disparities. Some schools report rates above 10 restraints per 100 students - ten times the statewide average. These are often concentrated at specific elementary schools and specialized programs. Without public data visibility, families have no way to know what's happening at their child's school.
What Families Can Do
- Request your child's school-specific restraint data - it may not be in the published dataset
- Compare your district's per-school rates to the statewide average of approximately 0.9 restraints per 100 students
- Document every incident - schools may underreport
- Use restraint data in IEP meetings to argue for additional behavioral supports and staff training
- Check our data browser to explore every school-level restraint record from 2016-2025