W. Fargo, ND: 'Time-out spaces' in schools "only in severe situations"

Feb 20, 2018, Fargo (ND) Valley News: Area school with 'time-out spaces' discusses meaning behind rooms http://www.valleynewslive.com/content/news/West-Fargo-school-reflects-on-time-out-space--474644203.html Looking at an elementary school, you might not know of this room. It's a room where students are sent for a time-out. Some parents are saying, it's not right. But the people we spoke with say it's only used in severe situations. … Assistant Superintendent for Elementary in West Fargo Public Schools, Beth Slette. … Slette tells us, since the start of using these rooms a couple years ago, they have evolved with the children. The rooms vary in size and typically have padded walls. Slette says, many of them don't have doors and none of them have locks. She tells us, rather than referring to them as ‘sensory’ or ‘seclusion’ rooms like other schools do, they stick with calling them a ‘time-out space.’ "Sometimes we just need to take a break. we like to be able to provide our students with safe spaces for them to be safe and to help regulate themselves so they can get back into the classroom and back to learning," says Slette. So we did some research on these rooms. We found, they are completely legal in the state of North Dakota and the Department of Public Instruction is backing it up. "Now a sensory room is not typically considered seclusion, but sometimes it's looked at that way because it's time away from other students. But typically sensory rooms are there for students who maybe have a high need for some type of simulation," says Gerry Teevens, Director of Special Education for the Department of Public Instruction. …