Georgia public schools have outlawed the practice of placing students in solitary confinement, six years after a Hall County boy's schoolhouse hanging.
The state Board of Education voted Thursday to ban the use of solitary confinement and limit the use of restraints against unruly students.
For the first time, the state will require schools to notify parents when their children have been restrained.
Brad Bryant, newly appointed state schools superintendent, said Georgia is "one of the first states in the nation to step forward aggressively" on the issue.
The board worked for about two years developing the policy, which was supported by the parents of Jonathan King, a 13-year-old who hanged himself in 2004.
Jonathan was attending the Alpine Program, a public school in Gainesville for students with emotional and behavioral problems, when he killed himself with a cord a teacher gave him to hold up his pants.
He spent his final hours in an 8-by-8 seclusion room with no windows, bathroom, food or water.
The new rules prohibit seclusion; the use of chemical restraints such as prescription psychotic drugs; mechanical restraints such as handcuffs; or prone restraints. With the latter, a student is placed face down on a surface and pressure is applied so the student can't get up.
Physical restraint would be limited, except when students are in imminent danger to themselves or others or don't respond to less intensive, calming techniques.
Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution