Experts challenge overuse of school ‘time-out’ rooms
October 17th, 2008Say they are used excessively for children with behavioral disorders
Education specialists say schools are increasingly using isolation rooms to discipline students with behavioral disorders, and say the time-outs are probably doing more harm than good. “It really is a form of abuse,” said Ken Merrell, head of the Department for Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon, who said the rooms may be unsafe.
A family is suing the Iowa school district that left their 8-year-old daughter with autism alone in a time-out room for three hours.
A staffer at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund said it regularly receives complaints from parents who say their child’s disability has been exacerbated by the practice.
See also:
Teen: Time-out made me feel like a school prisoner — CBS2 in Chicago
Padded room raises concerns at school — Pocono [PA] Record
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April 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I need to know who to contact and how to stop my child’s school from putting him in an isolation room. I have repeatedly told them NOT to do it. His father has given them permission. We are divorced and he is the custodial parent, but I still do not want my ADHD child locked in a closet because he can not control himself in class.
Thanks Mandy M. Gorski — Indiana