SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — As a retired police officer, Craig Merrill is familiar with the concept of putting people in small, locked spaces they can’t leave.
So when the father of twin 8-year-old boys saw the padded rooms some Utah schools use to put children in isolation, he couldn’t help but notice the parallel to a jail cell.
Police usually wear a body camera when they lock someone away, Merrill noted. But he says he didn’t see any cameras in the rooms the school uses for seclusionary time-out – making it difficult to know what really led a teacher to “physically put hands on little kids” and lock them away.
“There was no way, I mean, without cameras in the classroom, to say, ‘This is what really happened,’” he said in a recent interview with FOX 13 News. “You just have to take their word for it.”
The rooms he saw on a recent tour of Elk Meadows Elementary School in South Jordan earlier this fall are used across the state to put students in seclusionary time-out – a relatively common but somewhat opaque tactic mostly affecting children with disabilities, like Merrill’s sons.
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Rules set by the Utah State Board of Education allow schools to isolate students – whether in a designated room or elsewhere – only under extreme circumstances. The child must pose an imminent safety risk to themselves or others, and the tactic should never be used as a method of discipline or punishment.
But Merrill’s observation points to a key concern among those opposed to seclusionary time-out: How can they be certain it’s always being used within those narrow parameters?
Utah districts and charter schools reported turning to seclusion more than 1,300 times in the 2020-2021 school year, according to a FOX 13 News analysis of the most recent federal data available on the practice. The data shows most of those instances were among elementary school children.
Guy Stephens, a national opponent of seclusion with the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint, argues that the frequency with which seclusion is used and the age range of students subjected to it strain credulity.
“There are absolutely situations [in schools] that could be that high degree of potential harm,” he said. “But how often is a 5 or 6-year-old really presenting the threat of a life-threatening situation?”
In statements provided to FOX 13 News, districts and charter schools that reported using seclusionary time-out stressed their compliance with the state’s rules around isolation, saying that the tactic is always used as a last resort.
Ashley Lower, a behavior specialist with the Utah State Board of Education, said the state helps "support the districts and charter schools in understanding the rules and the guidance surrounding the use of seclusionary time out” to ensure the tactic is “used properly.”
But she also acknowledged that it can be "really hard to speak to” whether each individual instance of seclusion actually followed the state’s guidelines.
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Nate Crippes, an attorney with the Utah Disability Law Center, said he hears from parents like Merrill at least a few times a year who are concerned about the practice. And he's among those who are skeptical that it’s “always used appropriately.”
“It’s kind of the teacher or whoever makes the determination there” that seclusion is appropriate at any given time, he said. “Without more oversight and making sure this is actually being done in a way that makes sense, I would share that father’s concern that we just don’t know.”
'THE EASY THING TO DO'
Taking shoes off and refusing to put them back on. Repeatedly flipping a light switch. Splashing water.
These are all examples of behaviors Stephens says have led teachers across the country to restrain students and put them in seclusion.
“More often than not, it’s not that life-threatening situation that leads to the restraint or seclusion," he said. “It’s non-compliance. It’s minor behaviors. It’s disrespect. It’s for behaviors that are really a function of disability. It’s for a child not having their needs appropriately met.”
Stephens founded the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint after his own son was put in seclusion in Maryland schools. Those instances, he says, caused significant trauma but were often not appropriate under the state’s rules around seclusion.
“Even the states that have the strongest laws aren’t necessarily doing better,” he said. “It really comes down to practice.”
Aaron Fischer, a professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Educational Psychology, has researched seclusion and worked previously with Utah schools to reduce their use of the tactic. He said he’s seen firsthand how turning to seclusion can sometimes feel like “the easy thing to do” for teachers who feel burned out and under-supported.
“When you use seclusion, it is an immediate response,” he said. “And so it may temporarily feel like it satisfies the needs of the adult. But again, there’s nothing happening for the children that’s productive.”
Over time, seclusion can become a culturally accepted response within a school, he said, which could help explain why some report that they turn to the tactic more often while others say they don’t use it at all. In Utah, 125 schools – in 21 of the state’s 29 counties – reported at least one instance of seclusion in 2020-2021.
Though Stephens believes the life-threatening situations that would lead to an instance of isolation should be “relatively rare,” he notes that true rates of seclusionary time-out are likely even higher than currently known, due to poor data collection.
Every time a school puts a child in seclusion, they’re supposed to report that to the federal government through the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection Survey.
But the Government Accountability Office, a federal government watchdog, found in a 2020 report that “significant weaknesses” in data quality control within that survey made it “impossible to accurately determine the frequency and prevalence of restraint and seclusion” across the country.
“For every instance of seclusion that was reported at the federal level, there are probably multiple instances that were not reported,” Stephens said.
While federal data can offer at least some sense of who is secluded – including demographic details like race, gender and disability status – as well as how often, Fischer said another limitation of the data is that it doesn’t provide the reason a student was put in isolation.
“We know how many,” he said. “But “we really don’t understand why. And at the end of the day, if we really don’t understand why, we can’t change the problem.”
But a step in the right direction, Fischer said, would be additional training for teachers on how to manage students in crisis.
“It really is a skill deficit,” he said of inappropriate uses of seclusion. “When you’re faced with these moments, you’re going to do what you think is right. And sometimes that’s not always what is right to do.”
The Utah State Board of Education provides training on crisis management to promote de-escalation before teachers use seclusion, Lower said. And schools are required under board rules to have Emergency Safety Intervention Committees, which are meant to monitor the uses of seclusion and restraint and recommend additional training, if needed.
The state is also “in the process” of developing additional monitoring of schools’ use of seclusion, “to kind of understand a little more what’s happening” in Utah schools, Lower said.
VIDEO BELOW: Fischer explains why he believes seclusionary time-out is overused
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 'CLASS IS IN SESSION'
At Valley Academy Charter School in Hurricane, a student was put in seclusion four times throughout the 2020-2021 school year after repeatedly running away from teachers and becoming violent.
“The other students were sent outside to the playground while the child was kept inside the classroom until the child calmed down,” Tracy Stevens, the charter school’s executive director, wrote in an email. “No restraints or physical touch was ever used. Employees blocked the door by standing in front of it to protect the child inside and the other children outside on the playground until de-escalation occurred.”
In Piute County — which reported one instance of seclusion in federal data — a student with a “unique condition” who “became a danger to self and others on a few occasions” was put in seclusion at Circleville Elementary School that same school year.
Koby Willis, the county school district’s superintendent, said the school set up a seclusionary time-out room based on requests from that student’s parents and specialists.
“The procedure then was to immediately contact the parents to have them pick up the student,” he wrote in an email. “The parents lived more than 30 minutes from the school and so a calm down room was used until they arrived. The room was set up, used, and dismantled all in less than one year.”
While some districts and charter schools — like Piute and Valley Academy —reported only a handful of instances of seclusion during the 2020-2021 school year, data shows other schools turned to the tactic far more frequently.
Spectrum Academy — a charter school that specializes in serving students on the autism spectrum — used seclusion more than any other school in the state. The academy reported 178 instances of seclusion at its North Salt Lake school that year and 75 at its Pleasant Grove school.
In its response to FOX 13 News, Spectrum’s executive director of academics, Liz Banner, stressed the unique challenges of working with such a high population of students with disabilities.
“It is impossible to compare the behavioral challenges addressed at this school to those at any other institution,” she said. “To illustrate this point, it's akin to criticizing an emergency department in a hospital for tending to more patients with acute injuries and needs than other hospital departments."
The academy came under scrutiny for its use of seclusion previously during an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which found the school had failed to ensure two students’ access to a public education. One child at the school was “restrained and/or secluded at least 40 times over a two-year period,” missing 14 hours of instructional time. The other was “restrained and/or secluded at least 99 times over a one-year period” and missed 13 hours.
Banner said ongoing reviews of the school’s practices, “both internal and external,” have led to “demonstrated progress over the years.”
She also noted that the school has more licensed behavior analysts than any district in the state and employs a high number of occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists and social workers. All staff are trained, too, on “trauma-informed and evidence-based de-escalation strategies” to address higher behavioral needs.
“Spectrum Academy is dedicated to providing a safe, secure, and respectful learning environment for both students and staff,” Banner wrote. “We strongly believe that all students should be able to learn in a setting that allows them to reach their full potential and supports their individual needs.”
To get a better understanding of how seclusion is used in Utah classrooms, FOX 13 News reached out to all 44 of the districts and charter schools that reported using seclusion in the 2020-2021 school year.
A few — like Piute County and Valley Charter — responded by providing additional details about their use of isolation. But most provided general statements that didn’t address specific questions, instead stressing their compliance with state rules and commitment to student safety.
About a dozen districts and charter schools didn’t respond at all, while others said their numbers — which were self-reported to the federal government — were inaccurate. In some cases they attributed that to possible data entry errors and in others said they simply couldn’t replicate the information.
FOX 13 News also asked Spectrum, Elk Meadows and other schools that have designated seclusionary time-out rooms whether they would agree to allow reporters into the schools to see them. All of them declined those requests.
Fischer, with the University of Utah, expressed disappointment that the schools had chosen not to be open with the public about their use of seclusionary time-out.
“Why is there not transparency?” he asked. “This is a public institution delivering this education.”
After Merrill toured Elk Meadows Elementary, he said he appreciated that the school let him see its seclusionary time-out rooms and take photos of them. But he still wants to see more accountability from schools in the state that use isolation moving forward.
“The problem was after they shut the doors and class is in session, then who can verify?” he said. “And that’s where the transparency problem comes in.”
VIDEO BELOW: Ashley Lower, a behavior specialist with the Utah State Board of Education, discusses training for educators on seclusionary time-out