f parents were to lock their children in a confined space for a lengthy period of time, it is highly likely that those parents would be arrested for child abuse and their parental rights threatened. (In fact, this just happened in Arizona recently.) If public schools do this, however, the outcome is quite different.

Solitary Confinement for Kids

The use of physical restraints, locked "seclusion rooms," and solitary confinement for children is rampant throughout the nation's public schools. In a comprehensive 2014 analysis by NPR and ProPublica, analysts found that "restraint and seclusion were used at least 267,000 times nationwide" in the 2011-2012 school year. Schools put children in seclusion rooms approximately 104,000 times in that one year.

ProPublica reports that the restraint and seclusion practices included "pinning uncooperative children facedown on the floor, locking them in dark closets and tying them up with straps, handcuffs, bungee cords or even duct tape."