How to File an ESI Complaint in Kansas After Your Child Was Restrained

Your child was restrained or placed in seclusion at school. You may or may not have been notified the same day. Now you want to hold the school accountable. Here is the specific process Kansas law gives you — and how to use it effectively.

The Two-Track Complaint System

Kansas gives parents two separate escalation paths for ESI violations. Understanding which path to use — and when to use both — matters for getting results.

Track 1: Local board of education complaint. Under K.S.A. 72-6151, if you believe ESI was used improperly, your first formal step is a written complaint to the local board of education. The board must issue written findings within 30 days. This track is faster and is appropriate when the violation is primarily about the ESI incident itself — improper use of restraint, failure to notify you same-day, missing documentation.

Track 2: KSDE state board administrative review. If the local board's response is inadequate or you disagree with their findings, you can escalate to the Kansas State Board of Education. The state will assign a Hearing Officer to investigate and must issue corrective actions within 60 days.

Track 3 (concurrent): KSDE formal state complaint. If the ESI incident reflects broader special education compliance failures — for example, the district is not implementing the BIP in your child's IEP, or the restraint pattern shows FAPE is being denied — you can file a formal state complaint with KSDE's ECSETS dispute resolution team. This runs parallel to the ESI complaint process and operates on a 30-day investigation timeline.

What You Need Before Filing

Do not file your complaint empty-handed. Before you write the complaint letter, gather:

The incident documentation the school provided. Kansas law requires that comprehensive written documentation of any ESI incident be delivered to you no later than the school day following the incident. That document must include: what events led up to the intervention, the specific student behaviors observed, the duration of the intervention, the type of restraint or seclusion used, and the names of the staff involved.

If this documentation was not provided by the next school day, that delay is itself a violation — cite it in your complaint.

Your own written record. Document what your child told you about the incident, when you were notified, who notified you (name and method), what they said, and when the written documentation arrived. If your child showed physical marks, photograph and date them.

All prior ESI documentation. If this is not the first incident, gather records of every previous ESI event. A pattern of repeated restraints without FBA review is evidence that the district's behavioral supports are failing — which is a FAPE issue, not just an ESI procedure issue.

What the Complaint Must Include

Your written complaint to the local board of education should be structured to make it impossible to dismiss. Include:

• Your child's name, school, district, and IEP or 504 plan status
• The date and time of the ESI incident
• The specific type of intervention used (restraint or seclusion — be as specific as you know)
• The exact violations: what the law requires and what the school failed to do
• Your requests for relief: an investigation, corrective action, and any compensatory measures

Cite Kansas statutes directly. K.S.A. 72-6151 governs ESI. If notification was not provided same-day, say that the district violated K.S.A. 72-6151's notification requirement. If documentation was not provided by the following school day, cite the documentation requirement specifically. If prone or supine restraint was used, state that K.S.A. 72-6151 categorically prohibits these methods.

A complaint that cites specific statutory language signals that you know the law. A complaint that says "I'm not happy about what happened" is easily deflected.

The Notification Timeline: A Common First Violation

The same-day notification requirement is violated more often than most parents realize. Schools sometimes wait until the next morning, citing the end of the school day or staff availability. This is not a valid excuse under Kansas law. Same-day notification means the day of the incident.

If you were not notified until the following day, your complaint should explicitly document the timeline: when the incident occurred, when you were contacted, and how many hours elapsed. This can be the most straightforward violation to substantiate because it is time-stamped and often verifiable from call logs or email timestamps.

Requesting the Debriefing Meeting

Separately from filing a complaint, you have the right to demand a formal debriefing meeting within 10 school days of any ESI incident. This meeting must address what triggered the incident, prevention strategies going forward, and whether the team needs to conduct an FBA or revise the BIP.

Submit this request in writing, citing your right to a debriefing under Kansas ESI law. If the district does not schedule the meeting within 10 school days, that is another procedural violation you can add to your complaint.

When to Connect ESI to the Broader IEP

If your child is being restrained repeatedly, that pattern is the important signal. It means the district's current behavioral supports — whatever is written in the BIP, or the absence of any BIP — are not working. A child whose challenging behavior regularly escalates to physical intervention is a child whose educational programming is failing.

In this situation, the ESI complaint process is only part of your advocacy. The parallel track is demanding an FBA through the IEP process, reviewing whether the BIP is evidence-based and actually implemented, and — if the pattern has been going on long enough — considering a formal state complaint for FAPE denial due to inadequate behavioral supports.

The two tracks reinforce each other. ESI complaint documentation creates a written record of escalating incidents. That record supports the argument that the district's programming is inadequate, which strengthens a FAPE claim.

The Kansas IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes a fill-in-the-blank ESI complaint letter and an incident documentation checklist built around Kansas's specific statutory requirements — so you can file a complaint that cites the correct law and requests the specific relief you're entitled to.

See more United States guides →