No legal authority for seclusion rooms used in N.B. schools, advocate says | CBC News

Kelly Lamrock, New Brunswick’s child, youth and seniors’ advocate, said there is no legal authority underpinning the use of seclusion rooms in the province’s schools. 

“It’s time to stop normalizing breaking the law and time to have a proper debate over whether schools with seclusion rooms … is what we intended, when we talk about building a high-quality education system for our children,” he said.

Lamrock’s latest report, released on Monday, is called Isolated: How School Seclusion Rooms became an Accepted Practice Outside the Law.

He said the use of seclusion rooms arose out of crisis, as schools have been consistently under-resourced over the last decade. 

‘Small, often windowless rooms’

He recommends that the scope and use of seclusion rooms be defined in amendments to the Education Act, to be introduced in the spring session of the legislature, which would allow for a broader conversation about, and scrutiny of, the practice.

“It’s evolved out of teachers doing things in a period of desperation, and I think the legislative process is how that is likely to happen, including whether government can defend the practice at all or whether the case for a ban, with the kinds of alternatives that people would propose, would be persuasive,” Lamrock said.

The report defines these spaces as “small, often windowless rooms located within individual classrooms, resource rooms or elsewhere on school grounds,” that are intended to “provide a safe, calm environment for students who are feeling overwhelmed … in the classroom.”

It’s not clear how often the rooms are being utilized, Lamrock said, even though there are departmental guidelines that say districts must report how, and how often, the spaces are being used. 

“The department does not get information from districts to know what is happening across the province,” the report said. 

“The department has no data.”

Other recommendations in Lamrock’s report include further study of the negative effects of the practice on children, mandatory discussion with mental health professionals before adding isolation to a student’s personalized learning plan, psychological support for those placed in seclusion and limitations on its use for vulnerable students. 

The report is being applauded by Inclusion N.B., a non-profit group that supports people with intellectual disabilities and their families, that wants to see an end to the practice. 

“Bringing light to what is taking place is incredibly important,” Ben McNamara, director of education and policy for Inclusion N.B., said in an interview.

“We also look forward to working with the government, working with the child and youth advocate, with families, with schools, and with teachers to make sure that hopefully this is a practice that we can put in the past.”

Education Minister Claire Johnson would not say whether she agrees with Lamrock that the practice lacks legal authority, or whether she thinks the Charter rights of children have been violated. 

“Our job now is to understand more, what the situation is, how these seclusion rooms are being used, how often are they being used, are the being appropriately used?” she told reporters. 

“It’s too early to say one way or another.”

Lamrock does not call for a ban in his report, but said that it’s time for elected officials to have a public debate about the practice, with input from stakeholders and experts. 

In many ways, he said, the use of seclusion rooms has arisen out of a series of failures. With a lack of expert support staff in schools, such as psychologists, students must wait years for assessments. 

Many students don’t receive complex care designations until they are 12. At that point, Lamrock said it’s too late to meaningfully intervene. 

“We have a system that is waiting until the moment of crisis,” he said. 

“The point of these reports is not to put blame on the teacher, who finds themselves suddenly on the front line, left alone by all the mistakes and all the things we didn’t want to pay for. The point is to roll the camera back and says these are happening because we need to do better.”

The New Brunswick Teachers’ Association said in a statement the report “underscores the consequences of decades of inaction.”

“The safety nets that once supported students through community services and schools have disappeared, leaving teachers and students to bear the brunt of an inadequate system,” Peter Lagacy, president of the association, said.