The author discusses the legal and administrative concerns, best professional practices concerns, and political concerns related to the use of physical restraint and time out procedures with seriously behaviorally disordered children. Among the points made are that the courts may consider such approaches to be cruel and unusual; that direct punishment may fail to inhibit aggression and may actually tend to increase its occurrence; that there is a need to specify the types of behavior with which such techniques are used as well as the age of students with whom they are used; and that information must be provided to a community including the parents of handicapped and nonhandicapped students, other teachers, and others regarding the purposes of these procedures. Appended are time out guidelines. (SBH)