Judge Rotenberg Educational Center

The Judge Rotenberg Center is a residential facility in Canton, Massachusetts, that uses behavioral treatments, methodologies and educational services to work with children and adults with severe developmental disabilities and emotional or behavioral disorders, through day, residential, and respite programs. JRC states that the center applies the science and technologies of behavioral psychology to the education and treatment of severe behavior disorders, using several basic principles, including near-zero rejection and expulsion policy regardless of severity of behavior or disability, active treatment rather than warehousing, and decreased use of medications and varied rewards programs.JRC is one of the few schools in the United States currently using aversives, and the only one using electric skin shocks as aversives, a controversial practice that has attracted considerable criticism from educators, governmental bodies, and disability rights and human rights groups. While JRC contends that electric skin shocks are used as a last resort only in cases of violent and self-injurious behavior, a 2006 report by the New York State Education Department found that the shocks were used for minor episodes of noncompliance, and that students were not provided with positive behavior supports, contrary to JRC's claims. There is limited peer-reviewed research on the effectiveness and safety of the devices that administer these shocks. In its 2006 Private Special Education School Program Review Report of Findings, the Massachusetts Department of Education found that unsigned Individualized Education Programs were being utilized for students at JRC, and that the school did not have a written policy indicating that it must obtain consent before revising or changing an IEP.