EVERETT — The Healey-Driscoll Administration, through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, recently awarded more than $1.5 million in competitive grants to schools, districts, and educational collaboratives to reduce or eliminate the use of exclusionary time-out rooms and increase the amount of time that students spend learning with their peers, and Peabody Public Schools will receive $100,000.
The state aims to leverage federal funding to expand alternative behavioral supports and strategies for students, enable positive educational environments and improve communication and collaboration between schools, parents, and the community to establish holistic support systems.
“Our administration is committed to ensuring that every Massachusetts student has access to a high-quality education, and making sure we have appropriate behavioral supports in place and maximizing time in the classroom is an essential component of that,” said Gov. Maura Healey. “These grants will provide our schools, districts and educational collaboratives with the resources and tools they need to make sure students have safe, inclusive, and positive learning environments.”
“We’re pleased to offer funding to help support schools’ efforts to reevaluate how time-out rooms are used and whether they are necessary,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said. “I’m pleased to see schools, districts and collaboratives taking advantage of this grant program.”
These grants seek to reduce or eliminate the use of time-out rooms, where students are separated from their peers and learning activities. This funding supports high quality professional development, including trauma-informed teaching, culturally and linguistically sustaining positive behavior interventions, and alternatives to the use of exclusionary time-out rooms. Further, these will support grantees in establishing and empowering behavioral support teams within each school to assess, plan, and implement individualized interventions for students displaying challenging behaviors. The grants will also promote ongoing evaluation and adjustments of effective strategies to reduce the use of exclusionary time-out rooms, as well as enable new, inclusive, and welcoming open spaces for calming.
“Inclusive, accessible, safe, and welcoming school environments are critical for students to learn and grow academically, behaviorally, and social-emotionally,” said Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler. “These grants will support educators to address students’ needs in evidence-based, responsive, and trauma-informed ways, significantly reducing and eliminating the use of exclusionary time-out rooms.”
“We were pleased to see the strong interest in this grant program,” said Russell D. Johnston, acting commissioner of elementary and secondary education. “We hope that supports like this will give schools additional resources to implement strategies to reduce or eliminate the use of time-out rooms.”
