To help children focus, the Positive Learning Collaborative—a joint UFT/DOE program—provides sensory tool kits to more than 16,000 public school classrooms

The Positive Learning Collaborative, a joint initiative of UFT and the Department of Education, has provided age-appropriate sensory tool kits—normally used in special education classrooms—to 16,200 classrooms in 616 schools since last summer.

“Many of our students have been learning remotely from home for more than a year. Though they love being back in the classroom, it is a big change from sitting on their bed with a device or cell phone. These sensory tools help children make the transition,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.

Each kit contains tools designed to help children concentrate, including noise-blocking headphones, light filters, beanbag chairs, finger fidgets, foot fidget bands, and wiggle cushions.  The tools are often used in special ed classrooms, but educators thought many more children could benefit from the tools.

The Positive Learning Collaborative (PLC) provided kits to the first batch of schools last summer, in its “Sensory Tools for Healing Schools” program. It followed up by sending kits to 10,000 classrooms in 376 schools in the fall and sending kits to another 240 schools, covering roughly 6,000 additional classrooms, from January through March.

As in the fall, this latest round of kits was delivered to high-need schools in zip codes with high Covid-19 death rates, economic need, and homelessness.

Eighty-six percent of educators who received the kits in the fall reported the tools helped their students in class; 82% reported fewer classroom disruptions; 62% reported an increased focus among their students.

The UFT and DOE created the joint PLC program in 2012 to help educators move away from punitive disciplinary systems that relied heavily on suspensions. Over the past nine years, reliance on suspensions in 40 PLC schools declined by 46% while staff and student surveys gauging a positive climate increased by over 50%.

During the pandemic, PLC has also provided workshops for educators to better help students experiencing stress, anxiety, and grief.

Educators who use the sensory tools are available for interviews.