A group of national lawmakers, led by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, have reintroduced a proposal that would block schools nationally from secluding students in locked rooms or using certain types of physical restraints, Murphy announced Thursday.

Though the bill, called the Keeping All Students Safe Act, faces long odds in a divided Congress, it has gained supporters this year, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, who leads the Senate committee overseeing education, now backing the proposal.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that children across this country, disproportionately students of color and students with disabilities, face dangerous seclusion and restraint practices," Sanders said in a statement. "It is our moral responsibility to ban these practices once and for all."

Similar legislation has been introduced in Congress since 2009 but has failed to pass.

In a news release announcing the proposed bill Murphy cited a year-long Hearst Newspapers investigation revealing that schools restrain and seclude special education students thousands of times a day and hundreds of thousands of times a year, sometimes resulting in serious injury or even death. 

"It's hard to believe, but there are thousands of kids who are being put in solitary confinement or having their hands bound as punishment for misbehavior at school," Murphy, who was not available for an interview, said in a statement. "These practices are downright dangerous and completely ineffective ways to address behavioral issues in the classroom."

As part of the proposed bill, schools receiving federal money would not be permitted to seclude students or to restrain them unless necessary to protect student or staff safety. It would altogether ban restraint practices that restrict students' breathing, such as prone or supine restraints and would offer training "to address school-expected behavior with evidence-based, proactive strategies."

The proposal was reintroduced Thursday by a group that included Murphy, Sanders, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.). Fourteen other Senate Democrats have cosponsored the bill, including Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal, but no Republicans have signed on so far.

The proposal also has support from a wide array of disability rights advocacy groups, as well as the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and parents groups including the National PTA.

"The evidence is clear that seclusion and restraint practices are not only ineffective and dangerous, but they are also disproportionately used against students of color and students with disabilities," Denise Forte, CEO of The Education Trust, said in a statement. "Every child deserves to learn in a safe and healthy school environment, and to be protected from violent policies that threaten their physical and mental well-being."

Still, not everyone agrees that federal restrictions around restraint and seclusion in schools are needed. Some educators believe these interventions are necessary to serve students with challenging disabilities, while others believe a patchwork of state laws governing the practices are sufficient and help maintain local control of schools.

Over the last decade, the country’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, which boasts 3 million members, has remained "neutral" on proposed federal legislation: the association didn’t lobby for or against it, according to congressional aides and national advocates. The NEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Hearst Newspapers on Thursday.

The nation’s second largest teachers’ union, the American Federation of Teachers, which has 1.7 million members, changed its position from “neutral” to supportive last year but has not officially endorsed the new bill. An AFT spokesperson declined to comment Thursday.

"Physical restraint should be used only when there is imminent danger of injury, and only when imposed by trained staff," President Randi Weingarten told Hearst Newspapers in a rare public statement on the issue last year. "Secluding students should never be allowed, nor should mechanical restraints."

Weingarten said teachers need funding to support professional development on the use of restraint and seclusion, emergency planning and other supports.

"Finally, we need to be sure data is collected on the number of staff injured as a result of restraining students who posed a danger to themselves or others," she said.

A congressional aide said who requested not to be named said discussions with AFT and NEA about the proposal are ongoing.

The American Association of School Administrators has opposed efforts to pass a federal law, noting that most states already have their own laws governing these practices. An AASA spokesperson said Thursday that the group's position had not changed.

Hearst Newspapers’ investigation found that laws regarding the use of restraint and seclusion in schools vary widely from state to state. Even in states with laws governing how these interventions can be used, "lack of oversight and accountability have resulted in egregious violations, leaving students subject to a pattern of abuse," a coalition of 17 state attorneys general wrote to Congress in 2021, urging lawmakers to pass federal legislation.

In Connecticut, where state law already restricts the use of restraint and seclusion to emergency situations and bans certain types of restraint, some lawmakers have proposed going further, requiring that a mental health professional monitors all secluded students, while further limiting the circumstances under which a student may be legally restrained. 

That proposal advanced unanimously out of the Education Committee and awaits action in the State Senate.