Government and politics reporter
Dave Boucher is a government and politics reporter with the Detroit Free Press. He joined his hometown paper after a decade working as a journalist across the country, most recently in investigative reporting roles at The Dallas Morning News and the Tennessean. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.
Publishing shorter pieces on a regular basis helped keep sustained attention on the issue.
Some educators in Michigan are training to avoid using restraint and seclusion in the classroom, here's how.
Fed up with a Michigan school system that used seclusion on their autistic son, Bennett Solomond's parents moved the family to Pennsylvania in 2019.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says Michigan should improve how it regulates the usage of a controversial tactic educators deployed nearly 94,000 times since lawmakers tried to tamp down on the maneuvers.
Michigan educators have secluded and restrained students nearly 94,000 times over the past five school years, a Free Press investigation found.
Lawmakers sought to restrict the use of seclusion and restraints on students in Michigan schools back in 2016. It was only supposed to be used for emergencies, they said.
A school district in Michigan isolated children with disabilities more than 4,000 times – and administrators will not reveal why.
Free Press investigation finds some Michigan educators using restraint and seclusion improperly, with no law to stop them.
State lawmakers had thought they solved the problem by banning the use of controversial tactics by educators against children.
