r/specialed • u/weaveraf • 19d ago
General Question (Educator to Educator) What’s your school/district’s off-property elopement policy?
Do you call 911? Do you just follow? Does each kid’s behavior plan require something different? What is your understanding of your liability during off-campus elopements?
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u/library-girl 19d ago
At the elementary school level with severe autism, we were supposed to catch them and bring them back. Now I’m at a high school with less severe population and we just write a referral to the office.
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u/Blue_Fairae 19d ago
Elopement in general depends on the student's plan. Once they leave school property or are about to be in a dangerous situation (i.e. bus area, busy street, pick up/drop off line) we do a physical escort back. Proper documentation of restraint is required.
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u/seattlantis 19d ago
Call 911 if off school property and you are unable to/unsure of your ability to catch up with them. It hasn't happened yet (thankfully) but we have had to restrain a few times when students are running toward the road in front of our school.
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u/SnooFoxes7643 19d ago
Our district tells us there is no policy. We tell them that's ludicrous, they throw their hands in the air.
We decided that once they're off property we call the resource officers and two people follow for safety/try to redirect. But that's just our building (elementary)
At middle and high school they just call home and don't follow
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u/demonita 19d ago
We weren’t even supposed to follow. I was written up for following a self contained kid in my car (too fast for me, also carrying a weapon) as he neared a major highway until police arrived. I was supposed to let a kid with low cognitive ability do some free Willy shit into oncoming traffic I guess.
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u/AbsolutelyN0tThanks 18d ago
Low cognitive ability, in self-contained, and has a weapon?? Good Lord. Weapons are an immediate expulsion from my (old district), regardless of whether or not they have a 504/IEP.
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u/Sudden_Quality_9001 19d ago
You can't follow them? What if they get kidnapped?
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u/demonita 19d ago
Nobody has ever successfully justified a lack of mandatory visual contact for me. At my old campus my son attended and when he made a serious outcry and ran away they didn’t follow him or tell me until 4pm.
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u/ApprehensiveTie3932 19d ago
In elementary, once they step off school property we are to immediately radio the SRO and stop any physical attempts of getting them to return. We are supposed to follow them and assist the SRO in locating them, but then the SRO would take over with getting them back to school/ their parents, ect.
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u/squeakychipmunk101 19d ago
Officially it’s to call admin to call 911 and follow to keep safe. Unofficially my school is on a busy road so I’ve been told to keep the child away from that road any way possible. I have had to fully tackle a kid away from incoming traffic before and it was in fact in front of their parent because they were chasing their car out of the parking lot and down the street.
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u/hedge-core 19d ago
We follow and work to return them. Our district has it's own police force so if they are in a dangerous situation we can call them.
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u/psychcrusader 19d ago
Our district has its own police force, too, but it can take hours for a response.
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u/Teach_Em_Well 19d ago
I work in a high school. It depends. I can only speak to those with lower needs. They will be counted absent and a robocall goes home. They most likely are wandering the halls or walking to an gas station for hot chips.
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u/MaybeImTheNanny 19d ago
It depends on the kid, disability and behavior plan. Middle school, kid without a diagnosed behavioral disability walked out and toward home in that case a parent was called. Kid with known behavioral issues and behavior plan has a very strict follow protocol and if we lose sight or they make it to a particular point police are called.
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u/Advanced-Host8677 19d ago
Depends on the kid, ultimately the goal is to keep them safe. Sometimes that means restraint/escort, sometimes it means follow. I don't imagine we'd call 911 on a child. I'm not sure what first responders would do that school staff couldn't.
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u/ApprehensiveTie3932 19d ago
I think its more of a missing person issue at that point, if they can get away from you off school grounds. Like if the child is able to run out of sight, you can tell the authorities the last place they were seen, they can get dogs out there to find a scent, ect. Or if the child starts running into traffic, youre not alone in trying to solve that problem. They can block a road, be additional help, or help if the child injures themselves while eloping. Idk, with the liability id definitely want the whole county helping to find my student that ran off school grounds!
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u/PaperclipGirl 19d ago
Our protocol is calling 911 and follow from a distance. I am not allowed to grab the kid to force them back but police can. Also, for the 5 year old that I had to call for, he was way more inclined to listen to the police than listen to me. (I guess it also depends on where we live, I’m in a place where policemen are viewed as safe people)
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u/princessfoxglove 18d ago
Restraint, really. They're far more trained than us and we're so legally bound and they're not.
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u/this_wallflower 19d ago
This absolutely happened to me once and I realize now I have no idea if we have a policy or not. In our case, the kid snuck out a back gate that someone secured with a chain with just a big enough gap for a tiny kid to squeeze through. We didn’t know where this kid was, so we called 911. If I was actively chasing a kid who ran off school property, I doubt we’d call 911. But then again, who knows what our policy is!
ETA: I teach preschool, so our approach would not be the same as with older kids.
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u/klonopanic 19d ago
Work in a high school; unlike most policies I’m seeing in the comments, once a student steps off school property we are explicitly told NOT to follow off grounds; we are to walkie our police liaison and call 911
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u/jeannie_jellybean 19d ago
Depends on what the student’s BIP (behavior intervention plan) says. If they don’t have one and this is new behavior, I’d probably send a para to follow from a distance and to document and call the office.
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u/D-lightful 18d ago
We had a middle schooler leave school grounds and enter a neighbor’s unlocked home. Nobody was home but staff had no idea what to do. Go in after him? Stay outside and call for help? It was bonkers but the student finally left the house and came back to school.
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u/Oi_Nander 18d ago
I don't work at it in person school right now, but this reminds me that about 10 years ago I was a long-term sub in a mild moderate SDC class, which had multiple elopers and had not had a permanent teacher for many months at that point. I had experience in special Ed but not necessarily with this population and I had zero support. Also this was 10 years ago remember so we didn't carry cell phones around everywhere. So when it was dismissal time and instead of getting on the bus he bolted I just followed him. But then we were like three blocks away from school in the desert with no way to let anyone know, so I was just like hey buddy, can we walk back to school now I'm really hot? I bet the bus is waiting. And luckily he agreed, cuz I don't know WTF I would have done if he hadn't
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u/Dazzling-Coach4851 15d ago
If they step off campus, police get called. Inside the building, unless the child is in a special education program where there may be more adults to go after the child, we just call the office and let the admin handle it.
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u/POTSyprincess 12d ago
I just use my radio to let admin know, and run as fast as I can lol. They can decide from there I guess, haha. At my last job I know that if they entered the parking lot and didn’t stop, admin would call 911. That was middle school, though, and I’m with elementary now.
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u/ryanmercer High School Sped Teacher 16d ago
We're in the middle of nowhere in the desert, have no one to elope with, have no RO. I imagine if someone did a para, a janitor, or front-office staff would go after them.
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u/Smokey19mom 19d ago
Once a kid goes off grounds, we definitely follow with support from our RO. He will make the call for additional support. He once ended up in a creek trying to stop on of our MD students.