Wegienka Elementary School Principal Michelle Briegel might need to step into the calming room for a few minutes because she gets so excited talking about the positive impact the new area has had on her young students and amazing staff.

Wegienka was one of 20 schools in the nation to receive a $5,000 grant to help create a calming room for students to help deal with the stresses of the day. Briegel saw the need for such a space at Wegienka and wrote the grant after attending a professional development session on the benefits of a calming room.

“The Calm Room Grant helps schools create therapeutic spaces for students who need time and strategies to regulate their emotions and return to class ready and able to learn,” Briegel said.

The “Peace Room” is designed to help students take a break and re-center outside of the classroom.

“We are so excited that the Wegienka Wildcats have a calming place in the building,” Briegel said. “It can be used for prevention to de-escalate emotions or anxiety before one gets too overwhelmed.”

Adults take small groups of students to the room for a break during the day. Typically, a student uses this room for a three-to-five-minute time period.

“We have intentionally left time slots open around the lunch hour for staff,” Briegel said. “Staff enjoy the massage chair, dim lights and soft music that this room offers. Our Wildcats love this space.”

Indeed they do.

One of the fourth graders said: “The Peace Room is very calming. I like the calming noises. You can look at stuff and if you are mad you can calm down. I use the room frequently and it helps me get through my day.”

Another fourth grader said: “I like using the squishy mats on the floor. When I visit this room it helps me focus so I can get back to work.”

Even the kindergarten students enjoy the calming aspects of the room.

“I like to go to the room to play with my friends and I like the small toys in the basket,” said one kindergartner. “I like the clouds. The room makes me feel good.”

Another kindergartner said: “I like to look at the bubble tube and sit in the chair. The room makes me feel comfortable.”

The Calm Room Grant required that each school have a plan to open a new safe space in their school building within the 2022-23 school year and have matching funds for its installation of $5,000 or above. Wegienka was able to raise matching funds through fundraising events.

The Cook Center for Human Connection, a nonprofit dedicated to mental health and suicide prevention, offered the nationwide matching grant so schools could create a supportive therapeutic environment for students to go where they can focus on self-calming efforts and learn to self-regulate their bodies and their emotions.

“More and more schools are developing calm rooms as part of a strategy to improve student well-being based on new psychological research,” said Cook Center CEO Anne Brown. “We are thrilled to offer the grant program to expand these efforts to more schools across the country and help them address student mental health, which has become one of the most critical issues of our time.”

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