All seclusion rooms must close, orders Ed Ministry

Apology to parents, nationwide plan implemented to handle misbehaving students 16 120 200 10

The Ministry of Education has apologised to parents over its handling of the Miramar Central School case and i s cracking down on “seclusion rooms” used as punishment for students who misbehave.

The ministry has ordered the Wellington school to shut down its cell- like seclusion room and put other schools on notice that they must stop using such rooms immediately.

It comes after the Weekend Herald revealed two weeks ago that at least 10 children at Miramar Central School had been placed in a small, dark room for misbehaving in the past year.

The ministry’s acting secretary of education, Katrina Casey, said an investigation had revealed use of the room had gone “well beyond” the management of extreme situations.

“In some cases, it was used as more routine behaviour management practice,” she said.

“With that in mind we have implemented a series of actions to improve Miramar Central’s performance in all future dealings with challenging behaviour.”

She said there were health and safety risks around putting a child in a locked room.

“When a child i s exhibiting extreme behaviour there are sometimes also health and safety risks to the child and other people.

“This case highlights that we should have acted much more decisively when we first received the complaint about the use of seclusion at Miramar.”

Casey also apologised to Education Minister Hekia Parata for the handling of the situation when it was made known to the ministry.

“It is clear that the ministry didn’t act with the urgency it should have to stop the use of seclusion,” Casey said.

“Children’s wellbeing must be at the forefront of everything we do and we will work with schools and their communities to ensure we all get this right.”

The ministry said the action plan at Miramar Central was of the same level as a statutory intervention, but because of the school’s level of cooperation it had been decided that a more formal statutory intervention will not be required.

Among the actions are that ministry staff will now be on site to review all behaviour management plans.

Parents will also be asked to sign off on their children’s behaviour management plans.

The ministry is now focusing on other schools that have used seclusion rooms in the last 12 months.

The message i s that all schools must stop using such rooms immediately and that Ministry of Education staff will be offering help to come up with techniques to manage students with extreme behaviour.

The names of the schools thought to have seclusion rooms have not been released. However, Parata this week confirmed eight special schools had been using them.

“These schools will need to talk to their parents and communities and will be encouraged to do this as soon as possible,” Casey said.

“All schools need to understand seclusion is unacceptable.”

The ministry said it would also look into regulatory and legislative implications of the Miramar case, as well as any potential legal matters that may surface in light of the situation.

Meanwhile, the Education Review Office has also been advised that it must always question schools about its strategies to address the needs of students with special needs.

Teachers working with children in special needs units must also be observed as part of ERO review processes.

Additional reporting Matthew Backhouse