THE Surrey District Parent Advisory Council (Surrey DPAC), with the support of the Surrey Teachers’ Association (STA) and CUPE 728, has launched the Room Clear Tracker, a province-wide initiative to document and quantify a growing but largely invisible form of exclusion in public schools.
A room clear occurs when an entire class is evacuated because of a safety concern related to a student’s escalated behaviour. These incidents often signal gaps in support for students with complex needs, placing the dysregulated student, teachers, education assistants, and classmates in unsafe and stressful situations. Despite their growing frequency, room clears are not formally tracked by the Ministry of Education or by most school districts in British Columbia.
The Room Clear Tracker allows educators, parents, and support staff to confidentially self-report room clear incidents to create an evidence-based picture of how often learning is disrupted, who is affected, and what systemic supports are missing.
“Community Inclusion Month is meant to celebrate the full participation of people with disabilities. Yet in our schools, exclusion is happening daily and is usually unseen and uncounted,” said Anne Whitmore, President of Surrey DPAC. “When a classroom is cleared, every student experiences exclusion, including the one whose stress response led to the incident. We need transparency to understand the scale of this problem and take action.”
The launch coincides with the BC Ombudsperson’s ongoing investigation into exclusionary practices in public schools. While the Ombudsperson is gathering data on suspensions and partial-day exclusions, there is still no mechanism to measure the frequency or impact of room clears on students and staff.
“Teachers see the toll this takes on every learner,” said Amrit Sanghe, President of the Surrey Teachers’ Association. “A room clear represents a system that has run out of options, not a child who has run out of chances. We need smaller classes, more supports, and the resources to create real inclusion in practice.”
“Education assistants are the ones holding space during crisis, supporting both the student and the class,” added Tammy Murphy, President of CUPE 728. “Our members want all students to feel safe and supported. The current lack of resources makes that impossible.”
Surrey DPAC’s Room Clear Tracker complements the Ombudsperson’s work by collecting community-sourced data that captures lived experiences of exclusion, not just administrative statistics. The anonymized findings will be shared publicly and with policymakers to strengthen calls for funding, transparency, and accountability in inclusive education.
The partners emphasize that this initiative is not about assigning blame on students. It is about making the invisible visible and ensuring that Community Inclusion Month is not simply a celebration, but a call to action.
The Room Clear Tracker is now live at https://surreydpac.ca/roomclear.
Educators, parents, and support staff are encouraged to participate.
