Carrie A. Tuggle Elementary Cuts Ribbon on New Calm Down Room

Birmingham City Schools Tuggle Elementary School has partnered with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine’s Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center regarding the structural design and equipment needs for an evidenced-based calming room. This “safe space” in the school where all students can go when they are extremely distraught and can access sensory based materials to aid in their de-escalation of emotions and behaviors. This often results in students verbally and physically acting out in the classroom setting or in an area in the school that is not conducive in deescalating a student who is in crisis. Research studies demonstrate that calming rooms are a critical infrastructure piece in schools to aide in supporting student mental health, especially those that have diagnosed mental health conditions. Tuggle Elementary School’s evidenced-based calming room. (BCS) The Tuggle Elementary School Instructional Leadership Team, along with the Department of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) mental health personnel, will utilize the calming room as one of many support tools to improve student mental health at the local school level. This will decrease the number of students who may need to seek such services outside of the school setting and remove some barriers...