From the RREI Partners Update (DECS, 21CP & Sound Supports), October 2026.
By early November, every district has a quarter of discipline, restraint, isolation, and placement data. Sometimes we tend to look at it the same way: total counts, compared to last year. Counts tell us whether the number went up or down. They do not tell us who is being removed, from where, or why.
Districts we’ve partnered with were surprised by their own data once it was broken down by student group and shown over time. Not because the data were hidden, but because no one had looked at them that way. Here are four questions that will show you what the counts hide, and you can answer all four with what you already have.
1. Who is in the numbers?
Consider breaking every count down by race, by disability, and by the two together. Then look at the rate, not the total. If students who are Black and have disabilities are five percent of enrollment and twenty percent of restraint incidents, that is the finding, even if the total number of incidents went down. Do the same for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and for the RREI priority groups.
2. Which schools, which rooms?
District totals hide building differences. Line the schools up. We’ve seen that, in most districts, a few buildings account for most of the restraint and isolation, and within those buildings, a few settings account for most of that. That is good news: an opportunity in three rooms is fixable this year.
3. What happened right before?
Consider pulling ten incident reports at random and read what the adults wrote about the minutes before the restraint or removal. You are looking for patterns in the demand, the setting, the time of day, and the adults involved. This is the fastest root cause analysis a district can do, and it usually points to a schedule, a staffing gap, or a procedure rather than a student.
4. Who has seen this besides you?
If the answer is “the special education office,” the data are not yet doing their job. Principals should see their own building’s numbers by race and disability every quarter. The school board should see the district picture and findings. And the students and families who are in the numbers should be asked what the numbers do not show. Districts that do this find that the opportunity statement changes once the people most affected help write it.
This month’s challenge
Take one data set your district already has, for one quarter, and break it down by race and disability together. Share it with one principal. Ask what they see. That conversation is the beginning of the Action Plan, whether or not you call it that.
Dig deeper: Skiba, R. J., et al. (2011). Race is not neutral: A national investigation of African American and Latino disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Review, 40(1), 85–107. · Losen, D. J., & Gillespie, J. (2012). Opportunities suspended: The disparate impact of disciplinary exclusion from school. UCLA Civil Rights Project.
Questions, or want help putting this into practice in your district? Email connect@dec.solutions.
