Keeping All Students Safe Act
Official title: To prohibit and prevent seclusion, mechanical restraint, chemical restraint, and dangerous restraints that restrict breathing, and to prevent and reduce the us… Show full official titleShow less
Official title: To prohibit and prevent seclusion, mechanical restraint, chemical restraint, and dangerous restraints that restrict breathing, and to prevent and reduce the use of physical restraint in schools, and for other purposes.
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Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Keeping All Students Safe Act
This bill prohibits the use of seclusion and limits the use of physical restraint in schools and Head Start programs that receive federal funding.
Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of seclusion, which is the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area from which the student is physically prevented from leaving. The term does not include a time out, which may involve separating the student from others in a non-locked setting.
The bill prohibits the use of mechanical or chemical restraints or physical restraints that restrict breathing or are life threatening.
The bill outlines the requirements for the use of physical restraint, including that the student's behavior must pose an imminent danger of serious physical injury to the student or other individual. Each state must ensure that a sufficient number of program personnel are trained and certified by a state-approved crisis intervention training program. Additionally, each program must establish procedures to follow after an incident involving physical restraint.
Further, the bill establishes enforcement provisions, including a private right of action for a student who has been subjected to unlawful seclusion or restraint. The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services must withhold payments from a program for unlawful seclusion or restraint.
Finally, the bill requires each state educational agency (SEA) to establish, implement, and enforce policies and procedures required by the bill. It also creates a grant program to assist SEAs with these activities.
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- EPILEPSY FOUNDATION
- THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES
- NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS
- NATIONAL DOWN SYNDROME SOCIETY
- NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
- NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS
Bodies those filers lobbied
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)
- Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Education, Dept of
- Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA)
- Natl Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Housing & Urban Development, Dept of (HUD)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 6617: Keeping All Students Safe Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-6617/
"H.R. 6617: Keeping All Students Safe Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-6617/.
H.R. 6617, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-6617/.
[H.R. 6617: Keeping All Students Safe Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-6617/)