if you know much about special ed, you probably know what a sensory room is already. but i'll explain it, for those who don't have any idea.

a sensory room is basicly a play room filled with gear and devices that various studies have shown increase coordination, motor function, cognative function etc. things like hula hoops, trampolines, mats to roll on, balls to bounce/bounce on, a big swing to swing in, giant toy bowling pins, etc. kids are supposed to ideally go into the sensory room and just have some wild crazy supervised playtime. they have baseball bases and nerf balls & bats, etc.

this room is right next to the sp. ed classrooms, because that way you can quickly turn to a kid who's doing a good job and go "you're doing great, cash in and let's go to the sensory room!" this works really well on students who are ADHD or just not used to sitting doing work for long periods of time.

well, yesterday we received the news that the sensory room is no longer to be used for ball games. you can't kick balls, can't hit balls, can't throw balls. so no soccer, no baseball, no catch. it came as a bit of a blow since most of our students really like playing those specific games in the SR, but we all kind of were able to roll with the logic. sometimes the lighting fixtures get bumped, sometimes balls hit the heating vent, sometimes a nerf baseball will get stuck on the lighting fixtures, etc. but whatever, we still have the sensory room right?

incorrect. after the day ended, i was told that now the sensory room is not to have running games of any kind. essentially, if a student uses the SR, it's to lie on the floor or in a beanbag. THAT ISNT REALLY A SENSORY ROOM. the lead teacher knows it, isn't happy with it, but there's nothing she can do. the school's solution is to tell us to take the students to the gym to play. there's a few issues with this.

1- the gym is on the other side of the school, and some of these kids are slow walkers. ie, a 5 minute cash in for good work turns into a 10 or 15 minute cash in to walk to the gym, play, and come back.
2- some of the students have a hard time transitioning from the gym. aka, even if you could get them there and playing within the time limit, getting them to LEAVE could escelate into them fleeing or fighting or generally being non-compliant to the point of it eventually ending in a restraint or escort.
3- during tests, the library is used as a testing facility. not relevent you say? the gym is right under the library, and the ducts carry EVERY SOUND straight into the library. we were told NUMEROUS times last year NOT to use the gym for play, because it disturbed students working in the library.
4- the gym is not always available. sometimes it's locked. sometimes it's in use. sometimes it's got gear in there that isn't safe for the kids to be around as they invariably get curious and want to touch it. but we won't know the state of the gym until we walk them all the way down there. walking down there only to say "guess we can't use hte gym!" is REALLY asking for trouble.

i haven't been bitten by my student yet, but it's only a matter of time, really. i have had to clean feces up. looking for a new job, not finding much of anything. honestly i'm debating unemployment, because this is getting ludicrious.