Abusive Use of Time-Out Rooms for Children with Behavioral Disorders

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Abusive Use of Time-Out Rooms for Children with Behavioral Disorders

According to Cheryl Theis, an education advocate with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, the organization has received calls from parents across the country complaining about the use of time-out rooms by school staff to discipline their children. Many of these reports include cases where children have been restrained and left in isolated closets or rooms for hours at a time, often without restroom breaks. According to some educators, "time-out rooms are being used with increased frequency to discipline children with behavioral disorders." Ken Merrell, head of the Department for Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon, argues the use of time-out rooms is a form of abuse and does not effectively modify children's behavior because time out rooms are used as isolation booths and are sometimes unsafe. Merrell says, however, there are ways to use time out rooms appropriately by combining timeouts with social skills training.

Full story: Crumb, Some Experts Call School Time-out Rooms 'Abuse,' USA Today, October 21, 2008, available athttp://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-10-20-time-out-discipline_N.htm Get 5 GB of storage with Windows Live Hotmail. Sign up today.