School officials give seclusion rooms names like a blue room or cool-down room. Special needs students are put in these rooms to control their behavior. Cottonwood, Ardmore and Edmond schools have lawsuits filed against them because parents don’t think the rooms are a safe way of controlling the students. According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office students have been injured or even died in seclusion rooms.
Do you agree with seclusion rooms? What about safe rooms? Is there a better option?
Special needs students are put in seclusion rooms to control their behavior.
Some Oklahoma school officials say they are used only in extreme circumstances if the student is violent. In some schools, the rooms have no furniture. Some have a beanbag chair and a lock on the door. Some rooms are large enough so the student can sit or lie down and the lock has to automatically disengage in an emergency in case of fire.
School officials give the rooms benign-sounding names like “blue room,” “cool-down room” or “de-escalation room” and say they’re intended to provide a healthy temporary separation. But many parents and child advocates say the practice is like being locked in a closet, and some liken it to solitary confinement in prison. Students placed in the rooms often have special needs.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Key takeaways
- According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, some students have been injured in seclusion rooms in different schools.
- Every time a child is secluded the school is supposed to contact the parents within 24 hours.
- In some schools, the seclusion rooms may be a former supply closet with cinderblock walls and only a beanbag chair and a lock on the door.
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