Mississippi students were forcibly restrained or secluded more than 700 times in the 2009-10 school year, according to the most recent online data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. But the actual number of incidents could be greater. Data on school discipline, including the use of seclusion and restraint, is self-reported by districts to the federal government. So it’s difficult to tell whether a district with zero incidents is restraint- and seclusion-free or whether it’s simply not keeping track. At the state level, there’s no snapshot whatsoever—Mississippi doesn’t collect data on restraint and seclusion.

The widely reported case of an autistic boy who was isolated in a wooden pen in a Lamar County, Mississippi, elementary-school classroom two years ago has helped highlight the glaring lack of accountability for school districts, parents, and advocates like Joy Hogge say.

Hogge, the executive director of Families as Allies, which provides training and support services for families of children with emotional and behavioral problems, said parents often hesitate to address potential abuse in their children’s classrooms because they may fear retaliation or lack the skills to navigate the school bureaucracy. She was heartened, however, that the state invited parent input at two public hearings last year on the proposed policy.

“I think there’s a real opportunity here to kind of change that part of our culture,” Hogge said.

If a policy prevails in Mississippi, it would put the state in line with new federal guidance in the recently reauthorized Every Student Succeeds Act (formerly known as No Child Left Behind). The new law requires states to develop plans on how they’ll reduce the use of restraint and seclusion, as well as bullying, harassment, and student suspensions.

Ron Hager, a senior staff attorney at the National Disability Rights Network, called the ESSA language “a kind of foot in the door” toward ultimately doing away with restraint and seclusion.

For the time being, that’s far from being the case in Mississippi.

“They do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it, however they want to do it,” said Heather Rhodes, the mother of the boy who was secluded in the pen. She intends to file a civil case against the Lamar County school district, while a criminal complaint she filed against the teacher was dismissed in 2014.

Rhodes said she entered the classroom to find her son, Cade, who was 8 at the time, confined in a three-sided wooden pen, banging his head on the floor, screaming to get out and calling for her as his teacher held the gate closed with her foot.

Cade also has central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), which impairs his ability to listen and communicate back what’s been said or done. His teacher wanted him to sit down, but he knew his mother was on her way to his classroom with birthday treats for his classmates and wanted to find her, according to an investigative story by the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger.