* NPR Illinois…
Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday grilled officials about the practice of locking kids in “seclusion rooms” in schools. It’s the first legislative hearing since a news report brought attention to the practice late last year.
The story, from ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune, revealed thousands of incidents in which kids with special needs were locked away, usually alone, and often for reasons that broke the law.
Venessa Fawley, the mother of a 9-year-old on the autism spectrum, told lawmakers she wasn’t shocked by the report, “but what really angered me is that such criminal abuse went on for so long with little accountability.”
“Where was the oversight?” she asked. “Who was in charge?”
* Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica Illinois, and Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune…
“Schools have become very punitive in how they’re dealing with students with disabilities. This is their go-to method for not doing homework, not putting their shirttail in. You’re just seeing some very abusive use,” said Zena Naiditch, CEO of the disabilities watchdog group Equip for Equality. […]
At Tuesday’s hearing, some lawmakers questioned whether there are times when schools should be able to use seclusion “therapeutically,” including when a staff member is with a student.
“There’s no evidence that shows seclusion rooms are effective for disciplinary actions nor for therapeutic intervention — like, zero,” Kyle Hillman, director of legislative affairs for the National Association of Social Workers, told legislators. He urged the lawmakers to ban seclusion altogether rather than making exceptions or special allowances.
“If a single mother, particularly of color, was locking their child in a closet, standing outside while the child was screaming, defecating itself repeatedly, this body would be asking for criminal charges,” Hillman said. “This is happening in our schools and we’re looking for ways to still make this possible for them to do it.”
Instead, state officials should be adding social workers, behavioral experts and other trained staff to schools, and requiring more and better training on how to help students in crisis, according to educators, advocates and a parent who spoke at the hearing. […]
The agency’s proposed rules would require that staff members receive eight hours of training annually that includes de-escalation and trauma-informed care. Some educators said that’s not enough.
“We see that as wholly insufficient,” said Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. “When you are not trained fully, repeatedly, consistently over time, when bad things happen, emotions kick in and that’s when things really go haywire.”
Officials from the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance, which advocates for school administrators and school boards, suggested that seclusion is appropriate for some types of children and told legislators that the schools spotlighted in “The Quiet Rooms” weren’t representative of most schools. That drew a rebuke from Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook, who shared a personal story of his own traumatic experience with seclusion as a child.
* Capitol News Illinois…
Rep. Jonathan Carroll, a Northbrook Democrat, is sponsoring a bill to ban the practice of “seclusion,” which is defined as “a discipline management practice or behavior management technique in which a student is confined in an enclosed space that is designed solely to seclude a person, regardless of space or dimension, whether it is a box, a closet, a room, or any other specially designated locked or unlocked space.”
He said the matter was personal to him, as he said he was physically restrained and placed in such a room as a child.
“It was horrible that we treat children with special needs the same way we treat our most hardened criminals, and this is something that needs to stop now, and this is something that we have to stop both as a legislative body and as a state,” he said.
- Cheryl44 - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 11:04 am:
We really shouldn’t be doing that to anyone:
https://www.splcenter.org/20190404/solitary-confinement-inhumane-ineffective-and-wasteful
- Jocko - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 11:28 am:
With respect to Rep. Carroll, there’s a world of difference between seclusion and isolation. What’s his suggestion for helping developmentally immature (possibly out of control) kids to collect themselves and not disrupt the learning/safety of others?
- Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 12:02 pm:
@Jocko -
“Seclude” and “isolate” mean exactly the same thing.
It’s semantics, like “enhanced interrogation technique” and “torture” or “conversion therapy” and “psychological abuse.”
- Dotnonymous - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 1:19 pm:
- Jocko - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 11:28 am:
With respect to Rep. Carroll, there’s a world of difference between seclusion and isolation…
What “World” are you in?…Stop defending child abuse.
- charles in charge - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 1:38 pm:
What Cheryl44 said. Cruel and inhumane treatment that makes people’s mental health deteriorate is wrong even if they are “hardened criminals.”
- Juvenal - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 1:45 pm:
With respect to Jocko, Rep. Carroll is a veteran special education teacher with a master’s degree in learning disabilities. He doesn’t need to pass your test of clinical expertise regarding “developmentally immature” “possibly out-of-control” students who need to “collect themselves.”
Please, atleast have the decency to google, copy and paste the next time you want to flaunt your scholarly credentials.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 1:46 pm:
=That drew a rebuke from Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook, who shared a personal story of his own traumatic experience with seclusion as a child.=
So if it happened to him everyone is doing it?
=“Seclude” and “isolate” mean exactly the same thing.
It’s semantics, like “enhanced interrogation technique” and “torture” or “conversion therapy” and “psychological abuse.”=
If it is for 10 or 20 minutes or even an hour so a student can de-escalate while supervised it is appropriate.
everyday, for hours…not appropriate.
Their is a piece missing in this discussion and in the reactionary approach of lawmakers.
Their is a dearth or skilled personnel and facilities that can appropriately provide services for special needs children when schools lack the capacity. And when there are facilities available there is zero outside accountability or supervision.
We visit our students that are placed outside of the district every quarter, sometimes more often. Granted we don’t have as many as some schools, but we have been told many times we are the only ones that do that. And absolutely nothing from the state of regional superintendents offices.
So, while we vilify and denounce the poor practices and those that are doing it (and rightly so) the proposed legislation is a joke and so is the notion the the state will do anything substantive to change this problem.
More specialized service sites and personnel available statewide and actual people that visit these sites with regularity to make sure they are providing appropriate services. The one and only answer.
- Jocko - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 1:49 pm:
Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble, but there are students in public schools that, when upset, will kick, pull hair, spit at, and bite classmates and staff.
I’m not trying to defend those who abused the practice, but there are times that a trained adult needs to remove a student and help them calm down in a safe place.
- Wonk - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 1:51 pm:
To Jocko’s point, we do need to be careful that the language used doesn’t also bar the use of situations that are actually helpful to many kids in learning to manage their emotions and behavior, so maybe it is in how the word “confine” ends up being interpreted? A child who needs 10 minutes of quiet to be able to get themselves settled down and back in learning mode, but who has difficulty doing that when their class of 30+ students is noisy, can benefit from a “quiet corner” or other situation where they can be away from their classmates, spend a few minutes engaged in a quiet activity, and come back to class ready to learn. Is it “confined” if a student is told to go to the designated quiet (and in our school cozy and stocked with books, coloring supplies, and a few other things) spot for x minutes and not return until they are calm? Or is it only “confined” if an adult is physically restraining them or somehow preventing their exit?
- Klaus von Bülow - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 2:03 pm:
As a parent of a developmentally child these stories are sad.
If these outraged legislator out law this without funding for support staff they’re disingenuous.
- Seenitall - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 2:29 pm:
Clearly there are some horrible practices going on in the state that need eliminated. However, the Trib article was very misleading. Many of the students in the article were so violent they had already been removed from their home schools after the schools had gone through an extensive RtI process. Seclusions and restraint were then written into their IEP’s and parents gave their written permission for it to occur. And it is by no means the “go-to method” for such trivial things as not doing homework. But please, someone with all the answers tell me what my teachers are supposed to do the next time an out-of-control student tries to stab them or another student or kill themselves during class. I’d love to see the state invest in the mental health of our school-aged citizens, but I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
- Morty - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 3:44 pm:
JS Mill
Wasted words.
You’re bringing reason and thoughtfulness to a sensationalized media event.
Propublica decried the fact that only one district sent a representative to testify…then immediately did a hit on that district.
The one positive is the fact that someone- finally, asked what ISBE has been doing all this time.
- Morty - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 3:48 pm:
“Seclude” and “isolate” mean exactly the same thing.
Actually, they don’t. And they are used for different purposes.
One is punitive and the other is (if used correctly) a calming intervention.
But anyone pointing things like that out are being labeled as defenders of child abuse, so…
- Morty - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 3:56 pm:
next time an out-of-control student tries to stab them or another student or kill themselves during class.
-Both things I’ve had first hand experience with. That and the outrage when ‘their kid’ comes home with bites and bruises or worse caused by ’some other kid’
law this without funding for support staff they’re disingenuous.
-prepare yourself for the disappointment
Not to mention that the issues presented by theprivate residential facilities and FAPE are not being addressed.
- Anne Marie - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 4:18 pm:
My daughter goes to a therapeutic school and I chose one specifically that does not have seclusion rooms. Her school is full of children with challenges but they manage to do de-escalation without a need for a padded cell. Many of the places I looked at before we settled on the school she is very happily in had lots of seclusion rooms. One that I visited had 4 of them. Another that I visited twice on both occasions I saw them dragging some poor boy off to “the room.” My daughter who has autism would not have done well with seclusion and it would not have “taught” her anything. It would have just further traumatized her. Every day I am thankful that I made the choice to send her to a school without seclusion. However, nearly all the therapeutic schools I visited had seclusion rooms or as they call them “quiet rooms.” It was horrifying to see.
- Dotnonymous - Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 4:21 pm:
One is punitive and the other is (if used correctly) a calming intervention.
But anyone pointing things like that out are being labeled as defenders of child abuse, so… - Morty
Stop defending child abuse.
- Lynn S. - Thursday, Jan 9, 20 @ 1:42 am:
@ Anne Marie,
Thank you for sharing.
- Not Using My Usual Comment Name for Reasons - Thursday, Jan 9, 20 @ 10:18 am:
“Seclusions and restraint were then written into their IEP’s and parents gave their written permission for it to occur.”
Parents are not given an option. I was told “agree to isolation rooms or we will not enroll your child.”
My non-violent autistic child has been repeatedly locked in a padded cell for *TALKING TOO LOUDLY.* Twice he has peed himself while in there because they wouldn’t let him out to pee — because he was shouting that he really needed to go, so they could hear him through the door, and he’d been put in there in the first place for shouting, so that *extended his time in the room* — and then was punished further for peeing in the cell.
We live on the North Shore, in an extremely well-resourced district — one represented by Carroll, in fact. My child is outplaced to a therapeutic school. This was the LEAST punitive school option available to us, with the LEAST use of physical restraint and isolation.
Amazingly, when they stopped using the isolation room when this story broke, my kid’s behavioral incidents dropped to almost nothing, immediately. It’s almost like LOCKING A KID IN A PADDED ROOM FOR TALKING TOO LOUD was a massive overreaction that created MORE misbehavior.
I’m not able to homeschool my child — I don’t have the expertise to meet his needs, and paying for his necessary therapies takes two incomes — and I’ve been fighting with his district for three years now for an appropriate and non-abusive placement. There doesn’t seem to be literally anything available.
And before you tell me what teachers have to deal with, I have PLENTY of experience as an educator in schools with LOTS of troubled students. This is child abuse. And I should be able to send my autistic child to receive the public education he is entitled to without being required to submit to child abuse, or to fight with a school district for three years to attempt to force them to find a non-abusive placement. We have been raising hell and pursuing legal action, but reports of abuse at school have been met with shrugs by authorities (this has been perfectly legal up until now!), and we just keep getting told “there are no other options for your child” and, like, nobody seems at all concerned that autistic children who cannot self-advocate are being subjected to abuse at school, and are required by law to attend school, and parents are being told they have no choice and must sign IEPs allowing the abuse.
There more — lots more — but I have a lawsuit pending, so.