Latest news with #seclusionRooms
CBC
a day ago
- Health
- CBC
Edmonton Public Schools cuts number of seclusion rooms, but confinement continues
Advocates demanding an end to the use of seclusion rooms say they're pleased the Edmonton public school division has decommissioned more than 60 of them in the last year. A new report to the school board last week shows the number of seclusion rooms has dropped by about 37 per cent during the last year, leaving 105 rooms operational in 56 public schools. "We're extremely pleased to see a reduction in the number of seclusion rooms and in the use of those rooms, because quite frankly, the trend over the last few years has been in the other direction," said Trish Bowman, the CEO of Inclusion Alberta. A seclusion room is an empty chamber that can be locked from the outside. Provincial standards dictate that school staff are only to use the rooms in an emergency, when a student presents a danger of harm to themselves or others. Staff are only supposed to put students in the rooms with parents' permission. Division employees have acknowledged that in a crisis, it does sometimes happen without parental consent. For years, Inclusion Alberta and some parents are among advocates for students with disabilities who say the rooms should be eliminated. Parent Rosemarie Jordan says she found out years after the fact that her son, who has multiple disabilities, was put into seclusion rooms, and school staff never informed her. The experience caused him trauma, distress, and affected his willingness to attend school, she said. "He just understood that this is something that adults shouldn't be doing to me," she said in an interview last week. She said her son, who is now in Grade 10, consistently asks to speak school division managers because he wants to tell them to stop the practice. Research suggests that when a school employee feels it necessary to put a student inside one of the rooms, the experience can also distress staff members and other students who witness the event, Bowman said. Use of the rooms became the focus of attention in 2018, when a Strathcona County family launched a lawsuit in response to their autistic child's troubling experience in a seclusion room. The then-NDP government promised to ban school seclusion rooms. After the United Conservative Party won the 2019 election, the government reversed that decision and instead introduced standards for the use of seclusion and restraint. Since then, Edmonton Public Schools has had a stated goal of phasing out the rooms. The division runs many programs for growing numbers of students diagnosed with autism, developmental disabilities or behavioural disorders. As it adapted more school spaces to accommodate these programs, it also built rooms that could be used for seclusion. Data obtained through freedom of information requests showed last year that Edmonton Public Schools had almost two-thirds of the total number of seclusion rooms reported to the provincial government. In the 2024-25 school year, staff in the division put 640 students into the rooms against their will 1,581 times, according to data from the division. Critics said that seemed to be an excessive number of emergency situations and questioned whether every incident warranted the use of seclusion. The numbers do not include incidents where trained staff physically restrain a student who poses a risk of harm. Board chair says goal remains zero rooms Four parents and an Inclusion Alberta representative addressed the school board last week, applauding the decommissioning of rooms and reduction in their use. Parent Sarah Doll called the trend "a ray of light in an otherwise dark year for families of disabled students." Division superintendent Darrel Robertson told the board meeting he is requiring certain staff to take mandatory training in non-violent crisis intervention techniques. A few schools are also piloting a different de-escalation program, which has been "highly impactful." Robertson said the division is working to scale up that training to more schools. "I don't want seclusion rooms in our division at all," he said. "We're working hard to continue to get better." However, the school division and board trustees are making changes to public reporting and meeting procedures that have sullied some advocates' satisfaction with the seclusion room reductions. After five years of producing a standalone report on seclusion room use for the school board, the division will now include the information in a broader annual performance document called the Annual Education Results Report. Trustees, who are elected officials, also decided earlier this month to change the rules about who may address the board at a public meeting. The board will no longer include public comments on its livestream of meetings. Speakers can only address issues on the board's agenda for that meeting date, and it is limiting the number of speakers on each topic to five per meeting. Bowman said the school division's public reporting on seclusion rooms had been instrumental in the push to reduce their numbers. "It's actually deeply troubling that they've taken a step away from this kind of public transparency and accountability," she said. School division spokesperson Kim Smith said trustees changed the meeting rules to align with other school boards, and make better use of meeting time. She said there are other ways the public can contact their trustees. School board chair Julie Kusiek told reporters she thinks the change will strengthen accountability, because the report requires the division to set a goal and outline a plan for achieving that target. "And we have our target for this, which is, we're moving towards zero seclusion rooms," Kusiek said. The division has yet to set a timeline to meet that goal.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
'Commitment remains': Why Edmonton Public Schools is phasing out seclusion rooms
Edmonton Public Schools is continuing to phase out the use of seclusion rooms, spaces once used to isolate students during crisis situations, in favour of more supportive, inclusive approaches. A report presented to the Edmonton Public Schools' Board (EPSB) this week shows the division is steadily reducing both the number of seclusion rooms in schools and how often they're used. EPSB superintendent Darrel Robertson said the ultimate goal is to eliminate the need for seclusion rooms altogether. 'Believe me when I say, folks, I don't want seclusion rooms in our division at all,' Robertson told trustees at last week's board meeting. The report describes a seclusion room as a small, enclosed space intended for use in emergency situations when a student's behaviour poses a serious and imminent risk to themselves or others. The use of these rooms have long drawn criticism from parents and advocacy groups. But according to EPSB's report, their use is strictly regulated under both provincial standards and the division's internal policy. Staff must be specially trained, and seclusion is only used when all de-escalation and preventative strategies have failed. These rooms' use must be included in a student's individual behaviour support plan, developed in collaboration with parents, who maintain the right to deny seclusion as an option, Robertson said. 'We respect that,' he said. 'We just need to work in collaboration on alternative, emergent plans. Exclusion rooms are only to be used in the event of an emergent situation where there is imminent danger to, you know, self harm or the harm of others, and it's only for the time of dysregulation.' As of May 1, 2025, there are 105 seclusion rooms across the division, down from 167 one year prior, a reduction of 62 rooms. These reductions were achieved in part through official 'de-commissioning' processes where schools remove the door and shift the space to a different use. To encourage the transition, the division supplied schools with sensory materials to transform the rooms into sensory/self-regulation spaces, which are calming environments equipped with tools to help students manage their emotions and sensory needs. For existing seclusion rooms, decommissioning begins with physically altering the space. 'First of all, the door comes off, there's no longer a doo with any kind of blocking mechanism,' Robertson said. Between June and August 2024, 24 rooms were decommissioned and repurposed. Another 38 followed between September 2024 and May 2025. Not all uses of these spaces qualify as seclusion. More than half of the 1,240 uses recorded between September 2024 and April 2025 were self-selected by students, meaning the student chose to enter the space to calm down or work quietly, and the door remained open. These are not counted as seclusion. But 445 uses, or 35.89 per cent, were non-self-selected, where a student was placed in the room during a crisis or emergency. The division's approach to behavioural support has shifted toward proactive strategies, including staff training, relationship-building, and de-escalation techniques, so that crisis situations are avoided before they arise. 'Moving forward with our interactions programs, we're no longer constructing seclusion rooms,' said Robertson. 'We're constructing sensory spaces… with appropriate lighting, with appropriate, different materials for children so that it becomes a sensory room experience. They are not, I repeat, not to be used as a seclusion room.' The new spaces are meant to be part of the regular classroom environment, accessible, inclusive, and tailored to meet the unique needs of each student, said the report. Some parents and advocates worry that moving seclusion room updates into the division's Annual Education Results Review (AERR), rather than continuing to present it as a standalone board report, could limit opportunities for public discussion at board meetings. But EPSB board chairwoman Julie Kusiek defended the move, saying it actually elevates the importance of the issue. 'The AERR is the division's key accountability document for the work that we undertake in our governance role as trustees, and our progress towards our division's strategic plan,' she said. 'So by reporting on progress towards our strategic plan and an expectation that the use of seclusion rooms is included in that report, we're really strengthening the accountability. And we have our target for this, which is we're moving towards zero seclusion rooms.' She added that concerns about transparency are welcome and encouraged, and families should continue to reach out to their trustees. Public conversations about seclusion room use will still be possible, she said, particularly in any reports dealing with student safety or sense of belonging. 'There's certainly going to continue to be opportunities to have public discussion on the use of seclusion rooms,' Kusiek said. 'And we, for certain, will be expecting that through the AERR every single year.' The focus remains on adopting and expanding practices that have proven successful across the division, Kusiek said. While some families are relieved to see progress, she told reporters, others are frustrated that the practice hasn't yet been eliminated entirely. 'There is celebration here in terms of the movement towards the reduction in the number of seclusion rooms and the use of seclusion rooms,' Kusiek said. 'And as we heard from the superintendent, our goal remains to continue to improve our practices so that the use of these rooms is no longer required.' Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, reporting on seclusion room usage will be included in the division's AERR. The division also plans to: Continue providing professional learning for staff; Monitor and decommission unused seclusion rooms; Support the shift to sensory/self-regulation spaces based on student needs. While the use of seclusion has not yet been eliminated, Robertson says the division is committed to doing better. 'We've enhanced our professional learning, but we clearly have more work to do,' he said. 'Our commitment remains. We are going to continue to work towards the elimination of seclusion rooms… which I hope one day is zero.' cnguyen@ 'Last resort': Parents urge Edmonton Public Schools to end seclusion rooms Seclusion room use shows a "failure of imagination": advocate
