Human Rights Committees play a central role in monitoring the use of behavior modification in residential facilities serving persons who are mentally retarded. Similar human rights issues are evident with the use of behavior modification (operant conditioning) with severely and profoundly retarded students in public schools. Unlike institutional settings, public schools have not been required to formalize their behavior modification practices for peer review. This paper delineates some of these issues and shows how they are addressed by a Human Rights Committee in a special education public school for multiply handicapped, severely and profoundly retarded students.
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