Task force: Reduce seclusion room use, stop using 'time out room' term

A task force recommends reducing seclusion room usage and adjusting terminology on the topic but does not call for an end to their use in Iowa City schools.

The group, which convened in February after a school board directive in December, called for removing any of the Iowa City Community School District's 21 seclusion rooms that are no longer in use and continuing investigation of alternatives. 

Community members, district officials and health experts served on the task force. 

Jane Fry, the district's interim special education director, said plans are in place to deconstruct one of two seclusion rooms at Weber Elementary and remove the door from a room at North Central Junior High to modify its usage by the start of the next school year.

The task force also calls for eliminating the term "time out room," which the district has used in reference to seclusion rooms. 

“That has been a topic of a lot of conversation and some confusion," Fry said. 

She said the task force completed its work May 22, roughly two weeks before the Iowa Department of Education released a ruling that indicated some uses of seclusion rooms in Iowa City schools were in violation of state and federal law. She said the committee expected the ruling sooner, but called for the district to address its findings.  

Seclusion rooms are confined areas where staff, under Iowa law, can place students during some behavior incidents that rise above minor infractions.

Fry presented the task force's findings to the school board during its meeting Tuesday evening. 

In a report on the findings and recommendations, the group tasked incoming special education director, Lisa Glenn, with creating an action plan alongside other staff and community members. The report said the plan should have a timeline and look into areas including: 

• Developing specific procedures for seclusion room usage with regular reviews;
• Providing training on behavior de-escalation strategies for staff;
• Improving communication about seclusion with parents;
• Revising seclusion incident reporting; 
• Continuing training to address disproportionate usage among African-American, bi-racial and male students.

But some parents and community members have called for an end to seclusion room usage altogether. 

Casey Leonard, a resident who attended the meeting, said she is concerned about seclusion rooms having harmful effects on students and wants the district to require trauma-informed training for staff. She said she worries about teachers using seclusion rooms for discipline and wants the district to eliminate them.  

“I have hope that this community will come together to demand an end to this practice," Leonard said. 

But Sean Casey, a state of Iowa behavior consultant who served on the task force, said seclusion rooms are "the only safe alternative" for some students in crisis situations who are threatening harm. He said the committee has a goal of reducing their usage, but he thinks total elimination would be unrealistic. 

The task force referenced a report by Hanover Research that said "seclusion should be used rarely, if at all, to control the behavior of students."

"Seclusion should only be used in circumstances when less restrictive interventions
have failed to de-escalate a students’ behavior, or the students’ behavior poses a 
direct threat to their own health or to the health of other students or staff. Moreover,
seclusion should end as soon as the student’s direct threat is over," the report said. 

Department of Education complaint officer Thomas Mayes in the state ruling stopped short of calling for a strict ban on the use of seclusion rooms in the district, as well. 

The ruling corroborated allegations in a complaint by Mary Richard of improper documentation of seclusion incidents, occasional uses of seclusion for minor infractions and the possibility that frequent use of seclusion may interfere with a child's right under federal law to free appropriate public education.

Board vice president LaTasha DeLoach said she wants the board to consider creating a policy on seclusion room usage to guide the district in addition to state and federal law. 

The board made plans to continue discussing the issue at a work session in August and begin drafting a policy in September.

Board member Chris Liebig said he worries about the district's ability to track compliance with seclusion guidelines. He said that, while there may be a need for spaces to pull students aside, he wants them to look and feel different from what the district uses now. 

“These are little dungeons that we have within the classrooms," he said. 

Reach Holly Hines at hhines2@press-citizen.com or at 319-887-5414 and follow her on Twitter: @HollyJHines.