Trauma Sensitive Self-Regulation Room

Alice Smith Elementary School is one of Hopkins ‘trauma sensitive’ schools, focused on mitigating barriers to student learning, such as high rates of stress and adversity from homelessness, poverty, neglect, abuse, immigration, and more. A team, including special education staff and a therapist, has been evaluating the success of various interventions to help students in crisis feel safe, and to teach them to identify and regulate their often overwhelming emotions, which can lead to behavioral outbursts. HEF will now fund a specific Self-Regulation Room designed for sensory breaks. The room will be filled with unique therapeutic and innovative tools, based on the team’s recommendations, which will assist students in learning to self-calm. Through this guided intervention, students will learn the skills they need to remain in their classroom, focus on learning, and reduce behavioral incidents, creating a win-win situation for all students.