Angela Disisto, right, of Medford, Mass. with her autistic brother Luigi at the Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Mass. Angela says Luigi has benefited from the shock treatments and overall structure at the school. The backpack Luigi is wearing carries equipment that would give him a two-second electric skin shock if staff deem his behavior dangerous.(Meredith Nierman/WGBH News)

In the face of sustained advocacy from disability rights groups, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it plans to ban a shock device that the Massachusetts Judge Rotenberg Education Center uses to influence the behavior of children and adults with disabilities. Rotenberg administrators and some students’ family members contend the device, a backpack carrying batteries wired to students’ skin that administer a shock when triggered, is the only way to control aggressive or self-injurious behavior.