Local school boards may not have seclusion rooms in their schools, but just like so many divisions across Alberta, they will still have new provincial guidelines to follow.
“We did an audit last school year to confirm that we don’t have any rooms that are currently defined as seclusion spaces,” noted Jimmi Lou Irvine, associate superintendent of teaching and learning with Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS).
According to Diane Bauer, chair for the Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) board of trustees, similar to their public school counterparts, they too can confirm none of their schools have seclusion rooms.
École des Beaux-Lacs principal Margo Moyen told the Nouvelle their school doesn’t have any of these spaces either.
Seclusion rooms are defined by the provincial government as a room, structure, or enclosed area in a school that a student may be involuntary confined or isolated in. If an emergency situation did occur, a child placed in these areas couldn’t leave without assistance, due to the security measures put in place.
The province repealed the previous NDP government’s ban on seclusion rooms, and is gathering feedback on both seclusion and sensory rooms before implementing new standards that will be put in place by October.
“Since becoming minister, I have received numerous letters from our partners in the school system… asking me to rethink the former government’s short-sighted approach to seclusion rooms and student safety,” said Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange in a press release. “In fact, almost every stakeholder I encountered on this issue… clearly told me that a full ban limits a school’s ability to protect the safety of everyone, and to work in partnership to revise the existing policy.”
While no local schools have spaces that would fall under the provincial definition of a seclusion room, they do have dedicated areas known as sensory rooms.
“They’re for some children who get overstimulated in the classroom environment, and they go to calm down in a sensory room,” Bauer explained. “It has different lighting… they’re not resting there by themselves, they’re supervised by a person who’s assigned to them and their classroom… It’s not a punishment, and it’s what the child needs at a certain time to calm them down.”
Irvine described them as areas where students can have some quiet time before returning to the classroom.
“You’re giving students a space for an opportunity to decompress a little bit, and calm down so that they can be in a position for them to learn appropriate ways to respond to the different frustrations or the different stimulants that frustrated them in the first place,” she continued.
Unlike seclusion rooms, sensory rooms aren’t locked so students can leave them safely in the event of an emergency.
Irvine said NLPS has training available for staff when it comes to assisting students who may be feeling overwhelmed.
“We want appropriate planning for our staff so that we can support our staff in dealing with children when they’re expressing frustration or discontentment and need that time to relax and calm down,” she explained. “We have different types of training programs, including things like nonviolent crisis intervention, appropriate restraints, and those sorts of things, so staff can feel confident in using as a last resort, if need be.”
Bauer recommends any parent or guardian who is unsure or has questions about their sensory rooms to reach out to their child’s school.
“If their child had any difficulties in the classroom from being overstimulated and getting upset, my advice to a parent would be to ask about them and tour them with the school,” she continued. “They can see how it might benefit their child, and I think that would break through any myths that are out there.”
Both Irvine and Bauer agreed student safety is their number one priority.
