In Their Own Words

The Covid -19 pandemic, hybrid learning, and the transition back to school have impacted the social-emotional well-being of students and staff. This has led to increased classroom challenges, rising referrals to special education, and a need to create resources for classroom teachers to “raise achievement and improve behavior” (Simonsen et al., 2021). The district Student Support Specialists bridge the gap for those students needing immediate support by offering assistance to the building principal and social worker in each building to help ensure students’ needs are being met. The interventions recommended and implemented by Student Support Specialists include a range of universal supports for all students to intensive and individualized support for some students (Tier 2 and Tier 3 Multi-Tiered System of Support, MTSS).

The Zones of Regulation is a widely used Self-Regulation curriculum that teaches students to identify their level of alertness (arousal level) in the corresponding Zone (Blue, Green, Yellow, Red) and then help them to identify tools to change that Zone to match the environment/task. This curriculum is taught in both school-based and clinical settings to support children struggling with the ability to identify and regulate their bodies and emotions. In the past, we have trialed this curriculum in Kindergarten classrooms to facilitate the development of self-awareness, emotional regulation skills, and initiation of mindfulness tools to help our students with attention, focus, and self-regulation. The funds will be used in a collaborative effort between the Student Support Specialists and Special Education Staff to attend the Zones of Regulation training and then provide training to Special Education staff. We would also like to create a “Zones Toolbox” for each school to be used by the Student Support Specialist with specialized tools, recommended by the occupational therapists, that can be utilized by any student.

Status: funded in May 2023, staff trained in Fall 2023.