School seclusion room expansion runs into experienced opposition
MN lawmakers discuss school seclusion rooms
Educators and lawmakers continue to debate the use of seclusion rooms in public schools. FOX 9's Corin Hoggard has the full story.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - An expansion of seclusion rooms in Minnesota elementary schools is on the table in negotiations over an education bill.
As FOX 9 reported two weeks ago, the Senate would erase a ban implemented in September for kids up through third grade.
A Seclusion Apology
Memories to block a bill:
Now advocates are trying to make sure that doesn't become the law.
Molly Hoffard came to the Capitol to apologize to the children she physically restrained and put into her school’s seclusion room.
"The third-grader whose medication for bipolar disorder just hadn't been figured out yet," said the former paraprofessional and now parent to a child with autism. "I put him in there. The first-grader who was going through the process of receiving his autism diagnosis and just couldn't appropriately communicate, and he'd melt down. I put him in that room."
Who's secluded?
Mostly the youngest:
Hoffard told FOX 9 she had an epiphany when her district sent her to a preschool and had her locking up those kids as well.
Before Minnesota law restricted the use of seclusion rooms through third grade, 75% of secluded students were aged 10 or younger.
"It is young, small children that show up the most in the data because they can be overpowered, they can be picked up, they can be forced into a room," said Jessica Webster of Legal Aid.
Also minority students:
State data shows schools use seclusion more commonly on Black and bi-racial students.
And when FOX 9 reported on the abuse of seclusion rooms in 2017, we found schools often used the rooms as punishment.
"In no way do I condone any of that and I believe those misuses of seclusions should be addressed and must be," said Sen. Judy Seeberger, (DFL-Afton). "However, in (creating a ban), we eliminated a tool that is useful in rare situations for students, like my own son."
A personal correction
Only with permission:
Seeberger says her update to the law requires parental permission through sixth grade and still won’t allow seclusion as discipline, but keeps the rooms as a tool of last resort.
The House education bill doesn’t include the expansion, but that could change.
State data shows that since the legislature acted to limit them, schools have eliminated more than half of the state’s registered seclusion rooms.
And seclusions were down 37% in the first quarter of its implementation.