Edmonton Public Schools cuts number of seclusion rooms, but confinement continues

Janet French · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 03, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 3

Advocates demanding an extremity to the usage of seclusion rooms accidental they're pleased the Edmonton nationalist schoolhouse part has decommissioned much than 60 of them successful the past year.

A caller study to the schoolhouse board last week shows the fig of seclusion rooms has dropped by astir 37 per cent during the past year, leaving 105 rooms operational successful 56 nationalist schools.

"We're highly pleased to spot a simplification successful the fig of seclusion rooms and successful the usage of those rooms, due to the fact that rather frankly, the inclination implicit the past fewer years has been successful the different direction," said Trish Bowman, the CEO of Inclusion Alberta.

A seclusion country is an bare enclosure that tin beryllium locked from the outside. Provincial standards dictate that schoolhouse unit are lone to usage the rooms successful an emergency, erstwhile a pupil presents a information of harm to themselves oregon others.

Staff are lone expected to enactment students successful the rooms with parents' permission. Division employees person acknowledged that successful a crisis, it does sometimes hap without parental consent.

For years, Inclusion Alberta and immoderate parents are among advocates for students with disabilities who accidental the rooms should beryllium eliminated.

Parent Rosemarie Jordan says she recovered retired years aft the information that her son, who has aggregate disabilities, was enactment into seclusion rooms, and schoolhouse unit ne'er informed her.

The acquisition caused him trauma, distress, and affected his willingness to be school, she said.

"He conscionable understood that this is thing that adults shouldn't beryllium doing to me," she said successful an interrogation past week.

She said her son, who is present successful Grade 10, consistently asks to talk schoolhouse part managers due to the fact that helium wants to archer them to halt the practice.

Research suggests that erstwhile a schoolhouse worker feels it indispensable to enactment a pupil wrong 1 of the rooms, the acquisition tin besides distress unit members and different students who witnesser the event, Bowman said.

Use of the rooms became the absorption of attraction successful 2018, erstwhile a Strathcona County household launched a suit successful effect to their autistic child's troubling acquisition successful a seclusion room.

The then-NDP authorities promised to prohibition schoolhouse seclusion rooms. After the United Conservative Party won the 2019 election, the authorities reversed that determination and alternatively introduced standards for the usage of seclusion and restraint.

Since then, Edmonton Public Schools has had a stated extremity of phasing out the rooms.

The part runs many programs for increasing numbers of students diagnosed with autism, developmental disabilities oregon behavioural disorders. As it adapted much schoolhouse spaces to accommodate these programs, it besides built rooms that could beryllium utilized for seclusion.

Data obtained done state of accusation requests showed past twelvemonth that Edmonton Public Schools had astir two-thirds of the full fig of seclusion rooms reported to the provincial government.

In the 2024-25 schoolhouse year, unit successful the part enactment 640 students into the rooms against their volition 1,581 times, according to information from the division. Critics said that seemed to beryllium an excessive fig of exigency situations and questioned whether each incidental warranted the usage of seclusion.

The numbers bash not see incidents wherever trained unit physically restrain a pupil who poses a hazard of harm.

Board seat says extremity remains zero rooms

Four parents and an Inclusion Alberta typical addressed the schoolhouse committee past week, applauding the decommissioning of rooms and simplification successful their use.

Parent Sarah Doll called the inclination "a ray of airy successful an different acheronian twelvemonth for families of disabled students."

Division superintendent Darrel Robertson told the committee gathering helium is requiring definite unit to instrumentality mandatory grooming successful non-violent situation involution techniques.

A fewer schools are besides piloting a antithetic de-escalation program, which has been "highly impactful." Robertson said the part is moving to standard up that grooming to much schools.

"I don't privation seclusion rooms successful our part astatine all," helium said. "We're moving hard to proceed to get better."

However, the schoolhouse part and committee trustees are making changes to nationalist reporting and gathering procedures that person sullied immoderate advocates' restitution with the seclusion country reductions.

After 5 years of producing a standalone study connected seclusion country usage for the schoolhouse board, the part volition present see the accusation successful a broader yearly show papers called the Annual Education Results Report.

Trustees, who are elected officials, also decided earlier this period to alteration the rules astir who whitethorn code the committee astatine a nationalist meeting. The committee volition nary longer see nationalist comments connected its livestream of meetings. Speakers tin lone code issues connected the board's docket for that gathering date, and it is limiting the fig of speakers connected each taxable to 5 per meeting.

Bowman said the schoolhouse division's nationalist reporting connected seclusion rooms had been instrumental successful the propulsion to trim their numbers. 

"It's actually profoundly troubling that they've taken a measurement distant from this benignant of nationalist transparency and accountability," she said.

School part spokesperson Kim Smith said trustees changed the gathering rules to align with different schoolhouse boards, and marque amended usage of gathering time. She said determination are different ways the nationalist tin interaction their trustees.

School committee seat Julie Kusiek told reporters she thinks the alteration volition fortify accountability, due to the fact that the study requires the part to acceptable a extremity and outline a program for achieving that target.

"And we person our people for this, which is, we're moving towards zero seclusion rooms," Kusiek said.

The part has yet to acceptable a timeline to conscionable that goal.

Kusiek says she expects the committee to proceed to publically sermon seclusion country usage annually.