Virginia Beach - The School Board on Tuesday banned the use of dedicated seclusion rooms to isolate students during behavioral outbursts.
The change follows months of scrutiny after the isolation of an 11-year-old student with autism led to police and school investigations and a $150 million suit against a special education provider.
The board unanimously adopted a new policy limiting seclusion, a practice that disproportionately affects special education students. The policy also governs the use of restraint, a related technique meant to prevent harm to a student or others.
The policy doesn’t prohibit seclusion entirely, as some other communities have done. But school leaders believe the policy can reduce instances of seclusion.
School Board Member Alveta Green called the adopted policy a compromise. “For me, this is the beginning of moving toward us truly eliminating it,” Green told the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO on Wednesday.
The prohibition applies to dedicated seclusion rooms overseen by Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs within two Virginia Beach locations. The regional public consortium provides special education services in Virginia Beach and seven other Hampton Roads communities. Another city it serves, Norfolk, doesn’t allow seclusion.
The seclusion rooms in Virginia Beach are at the Renaissance Academy and a wing at Windsor Woods Elementary School. SECEP did not respond to a request for comment about how it would adopt the change.
Virginia Beach reported the highest number of seclusions among school divisions in Virginia in the 2024-25 school year. All but one of 271 incidents reported were related to SECEP programs, according to information provided by Virginia Beach schools through an open records request.
The Virginia Beach Special Education Advisory Committee, which includes parents of special needs students, recommended ending seclusion last year. Speaking before Tuesday’s vote, its chairperson, Meghan Ashburn, called the Virginia Beach change a “first step.”
“This policy change will require oversight and training from our division leaders and from SECEP leaders,” she said. “As we noted before, SECEP already abides by Norfolk Public school policies which prohibit seclusion.”
Board Member Kim Melnyk, who also serves as vice chairperson of SECEP’s joint board, raised questions earlier this month about how the policy will affect SECEP. She supported the change on Tuesday.
“I heard from the parents,” Melnyk told VCIJ. “I heard from the SEAC. And that’s why I voted for the new policy. SECEP is going to have to develop new strategies to manage challenging behaviors.”
As first reported by VCIJ at WHRO, discussions about seclusion were prompted by the treatment of Josh Sikes, an 11-year-old student with autism who died in November 2024 days after he had been kept within a makeshift seclusion area. The area was in a classroom overseen by SECEP staff at Pembroke Elementary School. Last year, a SECEP Executive Director Laura Armstrong said the kind of space described in VCIJ’s report was unauthorized.
Julie Xirau, Josh’s mom, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against SECEP and four employees in January. It claims her son suffered injuries in the area that contributed to his death. Josh died of natural causes related to a seizure disorder, according to the state medical examiner.
Xirau attended the School Board meeting and said the policy did not go far enough.
“There’s no place in this world for restraint and seclusion,” Xirau said. “It doesn’t help these kids.”
“They have outlawed the use of seclusion rooms, but they have not outlawed the use of seclusion,” Matthew Moynihan, her attorney, said. “While this is a step in the right direction, I’m not sure it’s nearly as far as the school board would like us to believe it is.”
Reach John Doucette at john.doucette@whro.org.