An eye-opening new study from the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica revealed that hundreds of Illinois public schools are using the questionable disciplinary practice of locked-door seclusion with special-needs children.
The practice of putting children in isolated timeout, known as seclusion, has been going on for many years in schools serving children prone to emotional and behavioral outbursts. In Illinois and 30 other states, it is technically legal to keep students in a separate space by themselves if they pose a safety threat to themselves or others.
Yet investigative journalists found that students are being secluded for more minor infractions, such as refusing to do classwork, swearing, spilling milk, or throwing toys. Some of these cases of seclusion appear to violate the law. The picture painted is one of children as young as 5, many with special needs, locked in small, padded, windowless rooms. The image evokes the psychiatric wards of old, not what we want for modern schools.
Predictably, the policy backlash was swift and sharp. A day later, the Illinois State Board of Education announced it will take emergency action to end isolated seclusion, arguing that the practice has been “misused and overused.”
The new rules will not totally ban the use of timeouts but do require that children are only put in timeout if a “trained adult” is in the room and the door is unlocked. The board also said timeouts should be used only for “therapeutic” purposes or to protect the safety of students and staff.
The initial investigative piece and ensuing response reveal a few things.
First, we are too quick to jump to conclusions: Seclusion is always terrible and must be completely banned immediately! Though the practice is not one that should be encouraged, a missing piece of the narrative is that the staff in these schools are simply unable to meet the needs of their students.
As Gineen O’Neil, director of Southwest Cook County Cooperative Association for Special Education, noted, employees are “making 1,000 judgment calls a day … You don’t always call them right.” A former school worker, Brandon Skibinski, echoed this sentiment, stating, “I didn’t think that [seclusion] was the best practice. I don’t know what the best practices are, though.”
If students are committed to hurting themselves or others, the adults, who are also responsible for all of the children around them, have limited options. Their options are reduced further if they do not know the current best practices for dealing with students who experience physical and emotional disturbances.
What both this story and the public policy response miss is that many of these teachers are not using seclusion because they are malicious or punitive — they use it because they don’t know what else to do. One administrator reported that her district lost its workers compensation insurance because employees were injured so frequently in confrontations with students.
Rather than banning a practice and thinking all will be well, it would behoove policymakers to ask why such a seemingly antiquated practice was being used in the first place. Maybe then they can address the real root of this problem.
Kate Hardiman is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She taught high school in Chicago for two years while earning her M.Ed. and is now a J.D. candidate at Georgetown University Law Center.
