Red Deer Public Schools Superintendent Stu Henry

By Sheldon Spackman

Clear Direction

City school districts pleased with new seclusion room guidelines

Oct 24, 2019 | 2:41 PM

Red Deer’s two largest school districts are welcoming the new standards announced Wednesday regarding the use of seclusion rooms, time-outs and physical restraints in Alberta classrooms.

The standards outline design requirements for seclusion rooms and must abide by all building, safety and fire codes.

The new guidelines take effect Nov. 1, with school authorities needing to report on their use of seclusion and physical restraint on a regular basis.

Stu Henry, Superintendent for Red Deer Public Schools, says he appreciates Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange taking the time to ‘pause’ the process and obtain valuable feedback before creating the permanent new standards.

“I know our superintendent group CASS (College of Alberta School Superintendents) were involved in the process and were quite satisfied with the final result,” says Henry. “I do think that it shores-things-up and makes it extra clear to all the school jurisdictions how to have consistent, good practice in this area.”

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LaGrange says the guidelines were made with input from groups such as Autism Society Alberta, the Alberta School Boards Association, the College of Alberta School Superintendents and the four metro (Calgary, Edmonton) school boards.

Henry says the new seclusion room standards provide firm guidelines.

“The rooms can’t be locked, they need to be supervised, they should only be used for extreme outbursts,” he explains. “So used as behavioral intervention for a kid who could be harming themselves or harming others.”

In terms of ‘time-outs,’ Henry says those scenarios would also be used sparingly.

“When a child is interrupting learning, just to quickly redirect them and get them back into the classroom,” he adds. “The idea with the new guidelines is that a kid shouldn’t be sent to an isolation room for a long period of time over something minor, which we would agree with totally. The seclusion rooms would be used for those rare outbursts where safety is of the utmost importance.”

At Red Deer Public Schools, Henry says it would be very rare to see a ‘seclusion room’ used, and always in consultation with parents.

“We have seven schools that have a designated room that could be used for seclusion, but again, we don’t use it the way that the definition indicates,” says Henry. “Often the child actually chooses themselves to go there to de-escalate when they’re feeling upset. But if they’re ever taken to those rooms by an adult, the adult is with them and the door doesn’t even latch, so it’s not really a seclusion room by definition.”

Dr. Paul Mason, Superintendent for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, says they also appreciate the clarification the new standards provide.

“It also reaffirms, after analyzing the guidelines and the Ministerial Order, our current practices,” says Mason. “But it also allows us opportunity to revisit it, and ensure that we are doing the best that we can. We’re in a bit of a fortunate situation in that we do not have seclusion rooms in our school division, so that part of the Ministerial Order doesn’t really apply to us.”

Mason points out they use another approach in lieu of seclusion rooms.

“Almost exclusively, we use an approach called ‘Handle with Care,’ which is a management system that staff who are trained in, utilize in order to maintain a safe and caring environment,” he explains. “It’s quite a training process involved with the ‘Handle with Care’ approach, and we’ve found that it’s been very helpful in our school division. It’s important that all of our schools endeavor to provide a safe, welcoming environment for our students and staff.”