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Ed. Code, § 56521.2 · Chapter 5.5. Behavioral Interventions

Ed. Code, § 56521.2

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) A local educational agency or nonpublic, nonsectarian school or agency serving individuals with exceptional needs pursuant to Sections 56365 and 56366, shall not authorize, order, consent to, or pay for the following interventions, or any other interventions similar to or like the following:

(1) Any intervention that is designed to, or likely to, cause physical pain, including, but not limited to, electric shock.

(2) An intervention that involves the release of noxious, toxic, or otherwise unpleasant sprays, mists, or substances in proximity to the face of the individual.

(3) An intervention that denies adequate sleep, food, water, shelter, bedding, physical comfort, or access to bathroom facilities.

(4) An intervention that is designed to subject, used to subject, or likely to subject, the individual to verbal abuse, ridicule, or humiliation, or that can be expected to cause excessive emotional trauma.

(5) Restrictive interventions that employ a device, material, or objects that simultaneously immobilize all four extremities.

(6) Prone restraint.

(7) Locked seclusion, unless it is in a facility otherwise licensed or permitted by state law to use a locked room.

(8) An intervention that precludes adequate supervision of the individual.

(9) An intervention that deprives the individual of one or more of the individual’s senses.

(b) In the case of a child whose behavior impedes the child’s learning or that of others, the individualized education program team shall consider the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports, and other strategies, to address that behavior, consistent with Section 1414(d)(3)(B)(i) and (d)(4) of Title 20 of the United States Code and associated federal regulations.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 857, Sec. 6. (SB 483) Effective January 1, 2025.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC&sectionNum=56521.2.
Text hash
sha256 2647c792e8687e393c6373ecbef7b36d94b9cd5bcddda4351f84351255a6614b
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compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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