This article from today’s Tallahassee Democrat reports a parent challenging the use of time out rooms in her school district. The article reports that the 7-year-old girl, with learning disabilities, had been placed in the time out room at least six times since the beginning of the school year.

The girl has since become fearful of being in any room with the door shut and will no long close the bathroom door.

The Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities has filed a formal complaint with the school district on behalf of the child. Of course school officials report that there is nothing wrong with the use of these seclusion rooms and that they have been using them for 20 years.

The rooms, 36 square feet in size, are not “locked” per se, but the person on the inside can not get out on their own without being released by the adult on the outside or by an activated fire alarm.

Ok – so what do you think? Should schools use seclusion rooms?

Check out this story from Sumner County in Tennessee, where the system has 16 such rooms, some as small as a broom closet.

I’m very curious to hear what you, dear readers, make of the use of seclusion rooms. Do you think they help children to learn self-regulation skills and to self-calm? Or are they more likely to increase the child’s anxiety and make them want to avoid school?

The use of restraint and seclusion is really a medical intervention, and within the psychiatric community it is closely monitored, and at time hotly debated. The main difference I see between the way that psychiatric professionals administer seclusion (and restraint) and the way schools do, is that medical professionals are generally much better at de-escalating and assessing a child’s states.

For example, during her current hospitalization, there are times that LuLu is removed to the “quiet room” in the unit. She is accompanied by two adults, but one adult enters the room with her, and the other one monitors the room from the outside. The sole purpose of this trip is de-escalation of her behaviors so that she can process what’s going on and work on self-regulation. There is nothing in any procedure or demeanor leading up to these situations that imply punishment. There is no “do this or you’ll go to the quiet room” type threats. There is just a quick assessment of the situation, decisive action, and once she’s regulated, she is released.

Don’t get me wrong. I do believe there is an advantage to giving a child a chance to get away from a situation and regroup. And I do believe there is a need for an adult (like a teacher or parent) to send a child away from the room when their behaviors are escalating and becoming dangerous. I also believe that if the adult in charge is getting emotionally involved and their feelings are escalating, then something needs to be done to allow the adult to self-regulate as well. Sometimes telling your child to go to his/her room is more about giving you, the parent, a chance to regroup than it is about consequencing a child. In fact, sending a child to any type of seclusion or “time out” should never be about consequencing a child. It should be about teaching self-regulation and about maintaining safety.

So, what do you think? Should schools be able to use seclusion rooms? Under what conditions? Should it be written into the child’s IEP? Should the parents be notified?


Related Articles:
Are Time Out Rooms Inhuman?
NYS Regs Allow Schools to use "Adversive Interventions"
When Discipline Starts a Fight

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