The use of seclusion rooms on the rise in Alberta after COVID-19 forced students into remote learning – CBC
‘There is no evidence that use of seclusion rooms is effective … in changing behaviours,’ says one expert
Mar 13, 2023
The use of seclusion rooms in Alberta is on the rise since students returned to the classroom after COVID-19 forced students into remote learning.
Seclusion rooms — a dedicated area in a school intended to provide a quiet and supervised space for a student who poses imminent danger to themselves or others — were banned in Alberta in 2018 by the NDP government but were reintroduced in 2019 after the UCP government took power.
In the 2019-20 school year, the UCP government introduced a ministerial order in October to regulate seclusion rooms and began tracking data. The rooms were used nearly 5,000 times that year, the data shows.
That number excludes April, May, and June of 2020 due to remote learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
