Kids can get overwhelmed. Here's what the Alachua County School District is doing to help.
Alachua County Public Schools unveiled a calm room Monday afternoon at Shell Elementary School.The room, funded through a grant from UnitedHealthCare, is designed to provide a space for students to decompress when experiencing strong emotions during the school day.
“I think that what we're trying to do in the district is show that we value mental health well-being, but also as we are providing support for mental health that we are helping students as the whole child,” said Anntwanique Edwards, ACPS chief of equity, inclusion and community engagement. “When that occurs, it is our belief that they will be able to engage in their instructional space with more focus. And so, kids who come back and they're able to be reset can then engage in the lessons and that's what we want.”
Students experiencing anger, anxiety and other emotions can calm down through low-stimulation décor, sounds and other calming features provided in the rooms. At Shell Elementary, these include stress balls, a rocking chair, calm music and coloring materials, among other things.
Another safe space: Even students need a place to decompress. This middle school's calm room has that covered
The grant from UnitedHealthCare, which totaled $52,500, will be used to furnish and equip the calm room at Shell Elementary as well as contribute to the district's efforts to help students learn to self-regulate their emotions and better cope with stress.
“UnitedHealth was looking for opportunities to support children's mental health because they were seeing a rise in mental health concerns and well-being and felt if they started at younger ages with kids, then maybe they would be part of helping young adults and adults to monitor their mental health wellbeing along the way,” Edwards said. “So it's more of a preventative measure in that regard.”
More than half of the grant — $37,500 — went toward the district's use of a system, developed by Braintree Wellbeing, which helps monitor students’ mental health and their emotional needs as well as train faculty to better understand mental health support in students.
The system is being piloted in Florida for the first time, Edwards said, meaning Alachua County is the first school district to use Braintree and have the support of UnitedHealthCare.
The remaining $15,000 will be divided among six schools — $2,500 per school — for resources related to calming spaces.
Edwards said the district chose Shell Elementary after looking at data for behavior and considering its location in Hawthorne, as rural areas further from the city are sometimes not in the forefront as recipients. Additionally, each school with a calm room already had an existing available room that could be used.
“Student achievement is tied to how students feel about themselves, and overall, their emotions throughout the day,” she said. “So we think that it's going to be very impactful.”
Edwards also said that many elementary schools do have calm corners within the classrooms, just not a whole room. She also hopes that parents will find value in the spaces and continue the mental health work at home.
A similar room opened at Fort Clarke Middle School in August and there also are calm rooms at Santa Fe High School and Howard Bishop Middle School. The district is working to bring Braintree into other schools and, if funding permits, will look at creating additional mental health well-being spaces, potentially for teachers.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua County Public Schools Shell Elementary opens calm room
