The Chicago Tribune and ProPublica released a report Tuesday regarding the use of seclusion rooms in public schools in the state of Illinois.

In Illinois, it is legal for employees to seclude students in an “isolated timeout” if there is a safety threat posed to others, according to the article. However, the reporters found some of the things students were secluded for included spilling milk or throwing Legos.

Through interviews, reports and logs, the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica were able to find 20,000 incidents of seclusion in Illinois schools.

A map linked to the end of the Chicago Tribune article allows users to search for specific school districts and the number of incidents reported there. It was found Urbana School District 116 had reportedly been using seclusion rooms or isolated timeouts.

According to the data, around 4,375 students were enrolled in Urbana SD 116 from 2015-16. In that same year, 68 seclusion incidents were reported in the district and 17 students reported being secluded.

From fall 2017 to Dec. 6, the district reported 99 isolated timeouts, the median length of these timeouts was 15 minutes. Additionally, 5% of these timeouts did not follow a documented safety concern.

In Champaign Community Unit School District 4, where 9,833 students were enrolled in 2015-16, zero seclusion incidents were reported and no local data was reported for fall 2017 to December.

Additionally, in Champaign/Ford Regional Office of Education #9, a total of 139 students were enrolled in 2015-16. Similarly to Champaign CUSD 4, no incidents were reported nor were any local data collected for 2017-18.

The State Board of Education released a statement Wednesday that it would take emergency action to end the use of isolated seclusion in public schools.

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