In spaces with names like the reflection room, the cool-down room, the calming room, and the quiet room, Illinois public school children as young as five wail for their parents, scream in anger and beg to be let out. The students, most of them with disabilities, scratch the windows or tear at the padded walls. They throw their bodies against locked doors. Some children spend hours inside these rooms, missing class time. Adults stay outside, writing down what happens. In Illinois, school employees may seclude students in a separate space — to put them in “isolated timeout” — if the students pose a safety threat to themselves or others. Workers isolate children for reasons that violate the law, an investigation by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois found. Children were sent to isolation after refusing to do classwork, for swearing, for spilling milk, and for throwing Legos. School employees use isolated timeout out of frustration or as punishment, sometimes referring to it as “serving time.”
ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune analyzed thousands of detailed records that state law requires schools to create whenever they use seclusion. The resulting database documents more than 20,000 incidents. State officials are unaware of these repeated violations because they do not monitor schools’ use of the practice. Many of the children being secluded are challenging. Records show school employees struggling to deal with disruptive, even violent behavior, such as hitting, kicking and biting. Workers say they must use seclusion to keep classrooms safe and that the practice can help children learn how to calm themselves. Experts and school systems have banned seclusion arguing that the practice has no therapeutic or educational value and that it can traumatize the children. There are better alternatives. Nineteen states prohibit secluding children in locked rooms; four of them ban any type of seclusion.