Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) Disciplinary procedures of a residential
facility shall be explained to all staff and each child according to their age
and functioning level. A copy of the disciplinary procedures shall be made
available to persons or agencies who desire to place children in the
facility.
(B) The residential
facility disciplinary procedures shall be humane, instructive and shall be
administered with fairness, consistency and respect and regardless of the
child's race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or
cultural heritage. All cruel and unusual punishments/practices are prohibited
including, but not limited to:
(1) Physical
punishment such as spanking, punching, paddling, shaking, biting, spitting,
hair pulling, pinching, pushing, physical hitting inflicted in any manner upon
the body or roughly handling a child.
(2) Physically strenuous work or exercises,
when used as a means of punishment, consequence or discipline.
(3) Forcing a child to maintain an
uncomfortable position, or to continuously repeat physical movements when used
as a means of punishment, consequence or discipline.
(4) Group punishments for the behavior of an
individual. A group activity shall not be cancelled for the entire group, prior
to the activity, due to the behavior of one or more individuals.
(5) Verbal abuse, including swearing,
directed at a child or derogatory remarks about a child's family, race, gender
identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or cultural background or
threats of physical violence against the child or removal of the child from the
facility.
(6) Denial of social or
recreational activities for more than five consecutive days without prior
written approval of the facility administrator or designee and a certified or
licensed practitioner of behavioral science.
(7) The denial of social, mental health or
casework services, medical treatment, educational services or access to their
guardian ad litem or attorney, probation officer, court appointed special
advocate, placement worker or caseworker.
(8) The deprivation of meals or any required
snack.
(9) The use or denial of any
medication as a punishment or discipline.
(10) The denial of visitation or
communication rights with a child's family as a means of punishment or
discipline.
(11) The denial of
sleep.
(12) The denial of shelter,
clothing, bedding, or restroom facilities.
(13) The use of physical restraint as a means
of punishment or discipline.
(14)
Organized social ostracism such as codes of silence.
(15) The use of chemical restraint.
(16) The use of mechanical
restraint.
(17) Isolation in a
locked or unlocked room used as punishment.
(18) Separation of a teenage mother and her
child in a residential parenting facility as a means of punishment.
(19) The use of prone restraints. Prone
restraint is defined as
a method of
intervention where a person's face and/or frontal part of his or her body is
placed in a downward position touching any survace for any time. Prone
restraint includes physical or mechanical restraint.
(20) Time out exceeding one minute for each
year of the child's age, unless approval is granted by a certified or licensed
practitioner of behavioral science and documented in the child's service
plan.
(21) Punishment for actions
over which the child has no control such as bedwetting, enuresis, encopresis or
incidents that occur in the course of toilet training activities.
(C) Discipline shall be
administered only by persons who are administrators or employees with direct
care responsibilities of the residential facility. Children shall not
discipline other children, except their own. All staff involved in the
discipline of children shall meet the requirements of rule
5101:2-9-03 of the
Administrative Code.
(D) Agency
employees, contract staff, student interns and volunteers shall not engage in
any act of omission or commission which results in the death, injury, illness,
abuse, neglect, or exploitation of any child.
