Comment on 'Isolation room' report prompts emergency rule changes for public schools

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois State Board of Education announced emergency rule changes Wednesday in response to a news story that detailed an overuse of “isolation rooms” in several Illinois public school districts, including those serving students with special education needs. That news investigation, published by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica on Tuesday, analyzed thousands of pages of records from Illinois schools that showed “every school day, workers isolate children for reasons that violate the law.” There were more than 20,000 documented incidences of isolation used in the state from the start of the 2017-18 school year through December 2018, according to the report, which also relied on more than 120 interviews to detail the harrowing experiences of the children involved. “The students, most of them with disabilities, scratch the windows or tear at the padded walls.