Mission of APRAIS

The mission of the Alliance to Prevent Restraint, Aversive Interventions and Seclusion (APRAIS) is to seek the elimination of the use of aversive interventions, restraint and seclusion to respond to or control the behavior of children and youth.

To prohibit the incorporation of these practices into the education, habilitation, or other service delivery plans provided to children and youth with disabilities.

To promote nationwide consistency in the protections, monitoring, and reporting that will keep children and youth safe from restraint, seclusion, and aversive interventions, ensuring that children enjoy equal rights and protections across all settings in which they receive education, health services, mental health services, correctional services, residential or foster care, and all other services.

To educate our constituencies, providers, policy makers, and the public at large to understand that restraint is not treatment but represents failure to provide appropriate services and supports, that there is no evidence to justify the use of seclusion and aversive interventions under any circumstances, and that tolerance of restraint, seclusion, and aversive interventions:

  • Causes serious physical and psychological harm,
  • Results in the dehumanization of all involved,
  • Prevents the development of respectful and supportive relationships between children and adults, and
  • Leads to the segregation and exclusion of children from their communities.

To carry out this mission on behalf of all children and youth, with or without disabilities, regardless of diagnostic label or degree of disability, so that no child is left behind.