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Sectors > Education

Teaching others, at all grade levels and even in colleges and universities, is a challenging task. In 1957, there was one physical assault on a teacher in New York City; in 2006 there were over 150. Educational standards and expectations have increased along with class sizes. It is estimated that the average teacher spends approximately $1,000.00 out of her or his own funds for classroom supplies.

In spite of this, teachers continue to teach, students continue to learn, and the educational system struggles with decreased funds, increased federal and state outcome expectations, and in many cases increased acuity of need for those served in public and private schools. Emotional and behavioral disorders manifested by students continue to challenge the educational system, and safety of students and staff has become a major issue.

In his book “Characteristics of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of Children and Youth” James Kauffman says:

“The most effective approaches to school-based prevention of anti-social behavior are proactive and instructive - planning ways to avoid failure and coercive struggles regarding both academic and social behavior and actively teaching students more adaptive, competent ways of behaving”

The Mandt System® provides a proactive and instructive approach which is based on interacting with people in non-coercive ways. Information from Northern Arizona University is used to define coercion and Positive Behavior Support.  

As a result of using our program, over 500 schools have been able to:

In some state educational standards, Positive Behavior Support is presented as an approach that “applies a behaviorally-based approach that enhances the capability of educators and parents to design effective environments that support student learning and behavior.”

The standards specific to Michigan education law go on to say that “PBS emphasizes behavior that encourages learning by building relationships” as well as by “creating routines, teaching skills/rules/expectations, identifying replacement behaviors that interfere with learning, making problem behaviors less effective, efficient and relevant, and making the desired behavior more functional and adaptive.”

Learning takes place in the student <---------> Education is in the relationship between teacher and student <---------> Teaching takes place in the teacher

The Mandt System® teaches the use of principles from an approach known as “Invitational Education” to facilitate building healthy relationships in the educational environment. Simply put:

Violence in schools is a major concern of all stakeholders in the educational environment. In an article appearing in Educational Leadership in 1995, Larry Brendtro and Nicholas Long state that:

“The most powerful restraints on violent behavior are healthy human attachments”

It is our belief that education occurs in the context of the relationships between all of the adults in the educational environment. When the relationship between and among all of the adults is positive, and all people experience dignity and respect as relational realities, education not only happens, it takes root and students do more than learn, they are educated. For more information, please see http://www.invitationaleducation.org.

For every hour that we teach restraint, we spend three hours on prevention and two hours on de-escalation. If we can prevent an interaction between people from becoming an incident, we have increased the safety of all staff and all students. We know that if staff are in relationships with other staff where dignity and respect between the staff are evident that students feel safer. If staff feel and act safe with each other, then students are more likely to feel safe with the staff.

In order to “calm down” people must feel safe. If people do not feel safe, they will not calm down. Our program focuses first on building healthy relationships between staff at all levels of the organization, and then on being role models so the students can learn from us. They will learn much more from how we as staff behave towards each other and them than from what we teach in any curriculum.

The Mandt System® has three components in our training – Relational Skills, Conceptual Skills, and Technical Skills. Known as the “RCT” program, it is taught in a Train-the-Trainer format which takes 5 full days of training, from 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday. The components of the course are:

RELATIONAL SKILLS

CONCEPTUAL SKILLS

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Chapter 1 – Building Healthy Relationships focuses on understanding how to Recognize, Assess, Decide, Act and Review (use your RADAR) to prevent incidents from occurring. It also looks at the needs of people (Maslow´s Hierarchy of Needs) and understanding how people respond to stress.

Chapter 4 – Trauma Informed Services is a sub-clinical training that gives staff an awareness of the effects of trauma on human beings. The chapter was written with the input of the National Technical Assistance Center and strives to help organizations create environments that do not re-traumatize individuals served.

Chapter 8 – Assisting and Supporting lays down the foundations for all of the physical skills utilized in The Mandt System®. The three components of all physical skills are: Stance and Balance, Body Mechanics and Movement, and Body Positioning. A reasonable ability to maintain balance under physical duress is required.

Chapter 2 – Building Healthy Communication Skills provides training on how to more effectively communicate to (a) build health relationships, (b) prevent incidents, and (c) de-escalate incidents if they occur. Skills for de-escalating incidents are taught.

Chapter 5 – Positive Behavior Support teaches staff how to implement behavior support strategies. It does not teach people how to write these plans. The primary source of information is Northern Arizona University.

Chapter 9 – Separating (Escape and Evasion Techniques) addresses situations where people have been grabbed (hair, clothing, arm, attempted choke, bite) and teaches how to gain release while de-escalating and preventing injury.

Chapter 3 – Building Healthy Conflict Resolution Skills teaches how to resolve conflict by communicating and building healthy relationships with each other. Skills for defusing conflicts and de-escalating situations are taught.

Chapter 6 – Liability and Legal Issues provides an overview of the legal issues surrounding the prevention and, if needed, use of restraint.

Chapter 10 – Restraining – this chapter teaches how to restrain an individual if their behavior rises to the legal threshold whereby restraint is required and justified. The legal thresholds are discussed and presented.

We recommend that the above 3 chapters be taught to students as a way of preparing them to become integrated into the community.

Chapter 7 – Medical Risks of Restraint is required to be taught prior to teaching chapter 10.

Advanced Technical Skills teaches how to prevent, and if needed, respond to severe aggression and violence. It may not be needed in unlocked  settings.
  1. Experience

    The Mandt System® has over 33 years of experience in the provision of training to empower organizations to prevent and, if needed, use restraint to ensure the safety of all individuals.
    Over 500 schools in the US and Canada use The Mandt System®, ranging from large cities such as Houston, Calgary, and Virginia Beach to smaller rural schools in Alaska, British Columbia, and Idaho. Following is a list of states and provinces in which schools utilize The Mandt System®:

    Alaska British Columbia Washington
    Oregon California Idaho
    Utah Montana Wyoming
    Colorado New Mexico Texas
    Oklahoma Kansas Missouri
    Nebraska Alberta Minnesota
    Iowa Wisconsin Mississippi
    Georgia South Carolina North Carolina
    Ohio Vermont New Hampshire
    Maine Rhode Island New York
    Virginia West Virginia Hawaii
    Pennsylvania Kentucky Texas
    Saskatchewan New Brunswick  



    Members of the Training Faculty of The Mandt System, Inc. have experience teaching at the local school level as well as at the university level. Four of our faculty members have published research based articles in peer reviewed journals, and have advanced degrees.

  2. History

    The Mandt System® is the most experienced program in the world in teaching the prevention and, if needed, use of restraint. In addition to our more than three decades of work in this field, staff associated with The Mandt System, Inc. have:

    • Provided testimony in state legislatures in Alaska, Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, Maryland, and Georgia on the use of restraint
    • Served as members of committees in developing best practice standards for national organizations such as the Child Welfare League of America
    • Provided keynote addresses at conferences throughout the United States
    • Served as technical advisors to states in the promulgation of regulations
    • Presented technical papers at international conferences in Florida, New York, Russia, Britain, and the Netherlands

    In our work, we have over 3,800 currently certified trainers in The Mandt System® in the US and Canada. We provide over 100 workshops annually throughout the US and Canada, and have consistently received excellent evaluations from participants in our programs. Our training faculty members have the combination of education, experience, and passion to provide training that meets the needs of thousands of organizations.

    Within 60 days of notification that The Mandt System® has been selected as the training program we will provide training in a one day session entitled Corporate Culture Change. It is our belief that leadership cannot simply be behind an effort to reduce the use of restraint and reduce injuries; they must be in front of this change process. We have provided this training in many different settings with excellent outcomes in achieving meaningful reductions in the use of restraint and increases in safety for staff and students alike. Corporate Culture Change is required for programs with more than 250 employees.

    Within 30 days of the Corporate Culture Change training we will provide training in The Mandt System® Relational, Conceptual, and Technical training to persons identified by the organization to become certified trainers in The Mandt System®. They will, in turn, provide training to the staff within the organization.

  3. Prevention, De-escalation, and Intervention for Safety

    The focus of The Mandt System® is primarily on prevention. As stated earlier, for every hour we teach restraint, we spend three hours on prevention, and two hours on de-escalation.
    Another way of conceptualizing our approach is that we want to:

    • Keep interactions between people going!
    • Prevent interactions from becoming incidents
    • De-escalate incidents so they do not become crisis events
    • If a crisis occurs, we want to use the least amount of external management to maintain the safety of all concerned

  4. Safety for All People

    We believe that all people have an equal right to safety. Whether people are staff or students, the right to physical, psychological and emotional safety is an inherent human right. We focus on this within our training in all of the chapters, with an emphasis on the need for staff to model safe behavior psychologically and emotionally with each other in order to teach individuals served how to interact.

    We have also included an ergonomic assessment of each of the physical skills taught in The Mandt System® that provides information on how the techniques provide for the safety of individuals served and staff.
    We believe and teach that there is no such thing as a “safe” restraint. Any time human beings have any type of physical contact with each other, there is a risk of harm. While we can not guarantee safety, our track record of helping to reduce injuries at correctional programs across the country is evidence of the effectiveness of our program.

    As we teach the prevention and use of restraint, we want to emphasize one key element in this definition, which is that “Restraint is an opportunity to regain self-control.” In order to regain self-control while being restrained, the student will need to feel as safe as possible. To create a perception of safety while being restrained is difficult, and to that end, restraints that use the following are prohibited in The Mandt System®:

    • Restraints that hyperextend joints are prohibited
    • Restraints that keep people off balance are prohibited
    • Restraints that use pressure points and pain are prohibited

If any of these actions are experienced by a person, they will not be able to regain self-control because they are threatened by the behavior of the people applying the restraint.

The Mandt System® training program meets all of the requirements set forth in the Standards on Standards for the Emergency Use of Restraint and Seclusion. The manual is formatted in an APA style, with all references appropriately noted.

When comparing our program with others, one of the factors will be cost. Please note that The Mandt System® does not charge for any training materials, student manuals, certificate, etc. There are no additional charges beyond the initial certification fee of $1,225.00 (US Funds). We provide, at no charge, each trainer with: