OCR found Folsom Cordova USD failed to ensure students with disabilities placed at non-public schools were not subjected to improper restraint and seclusion, entering a resolution agreement requiring systemic monitoring, reevaluation of affected students, and compensatory services.

Folsom Cordova Unified School District — Restraint and Seclusion of Students with Disabilities at Non-Public Schools (2019–2023)

Outcome: OCR found that Folsom Cordova Unified School District failed to adequately oversee the use of restraint and seclusion on students with disabilities placed at non-public schools, including one student restrained 22 times in a single school year and another placed in isolation for a cumulative 38 hours, entering a resolution agreement requiring retroactive compensatory services and new monitoring protocols.

Folsom Cordova Unified School District in Sacramento County, California, was swept into an OCR compliance review that began in 2019, when the agency examined more than 20 school districts nationwide following the 2018 death of Max Benson, a student who died while being physically restrained at Guiding Hands School — a non-public school in the El Dorado Hills area that FCUSD and several neighboring districts used for placements of students with significant disabilities. Seven FCUSD students attended Guiding Hands at the time of that incident.

OCR reviewed 31 student files selected to focus on students and schools with the highest numbers of restraints during the 2019–20 and 2020–21 school years. Across those files, OCR identified 54 students who had been restrained. Nearly all had IEPs; one had a Section 504 Plan. The findings documented severe patterns: one student was restrained 22 times in a single school year; another was placed in isolation in a "focus room" for a collective total of 38 hours. OCR concluded that these practices denied affected students a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The resolution agreement required FCUSD to implement an ongoing monitoring program for restraint and seclusion at all placements for the 2023–24 school year and beyond. By June 2024, the district was required to meet with affected students' families, evaluate whether any student had been denied a FAPE due to improper restraint or seclusion across the 2019–20 through 2022–23 school years, and develop a compensatory services plan for any student who had been harmed.

The case illustrates a systemic gap: school districts that place students at non-public schools remain legally responsible for those students' civil rights but often lack robust mechanisms to monitor what is happening to them off-campus.

Primary Source: Resolution Agreement Folsom Cordova Unified School District | OCR