EBD School Design
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• An inability to learn that cannot
be explained by intellectual, sensory, or
health factors.
• An inability to build or maintain
satisfactory interpersonal relationships
with peers and teachers.
• Inappropriate types of behavior or
feelings under normal circumstances.
• A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
• A tendency to develop physical
symptoms or fears associated with
personal or school problems.
The challenges presented by
students with EBD cuts across disciplinary, instructional, and interpersonal
domains, which frequently results in
chaotic school and classroom environments. The characteristics of students
with EBD can overwhelm the ability
and capacity of schools and staff to
effectively accommodate their instructional and social-emotional needs.
Consequently, more than any other
group, students with EBD are placed
and educated in restrictive educational
settings sequestered from their peers.
Such spaces tend to be located in areas
that have the least impact on others
when students in EBD classes have
emotional outbursts. It is not uncommon to find EBD classes in portables
or in remote locations within the
building.
Historically such restrictive spaces
were used as a dystopian daycare
for some of our neediest students.
Restrictive educational settings with
no standardized approach towards
student intervention have been troubling when considering the results of
the poor services and outcomes for
these students. The need to provide
intentionally designed spaces to provide evidenced-based interventions
for students with EBD is paramount
and could result in the greatest
impact on school wide discipline and
improve the life outcomes of some
our neediest students.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Meeting the unique needs of students with EBD and simultaneously
maintaining a safe and orderly school
environment that is conducive to
learning places a tremendous amount
of stress on educators. Historically
school design has been a one size
fits all approach. When designing
spaces to serve children with EBD,
before the first architectural design is
drawn educators and architects need
to work together to account for a safe
and secure space for counseling and
therapy, private meeting space for
small group and individual interventions, safety exits for students and
staff, restorative space, just to name
a few.
Incorporating the above elements
I worked with Architect Daniel Gero
of Integrus Architecture in Seattle and
generated the design. The space incorporates two classrooms providing all
the elements needed for a successful
EBD classroom.
With consideration that the typical
EBD class has 9 to 11 students with 1
teacher and 2 support staff we decided
to remove a wall and replace it with a
retractable divider. This means that educators can team 18-22 students with 2
teachers and 4 support staff.
tions are informed with the students
needs and that they are done with
fidelity. Too often children with EBD
receive counseling outside of the
school with no control of quality and
evidence-based counseling practices.
An additional beneficial factor is the
opportunity for family members to be
onsite when attending family counseling sessions, which are an integral
component to cognitive behavior
therapy.
Our design provides a space for
restorative practices. This space is referred to as the Boring Room, situated
between the counseling room and
the teachers’ office. The intent of this
space is for students to have a quiet
area to reflect on inappropriate behaviors through a restorative exercise.
Design is our first attempt to
support a population who represent
some of the neediest students in our
schools. In general, current practices in
EBD classes continue to result in more
negative life outcomes than not. We
encourage other educators, manufacturers, designers and architects to take
on one the greatest social justice challenges that we face in our communities
today. In a society that provides compensatory education we must be aware
that all students enter our schools with
some unique needs, some more acute
than others. It is our responsibility
to meet those needs and provide the
appropriate space that facilitates all
services and interventions needed to
support children with EBD.
n
LARGER DESIGN ELEMENTS
A school psychologist should have
access to a private space within the
class or close to it to allow consistent
communication among the education
staff. The intent on such communication is to make certain interven-
CHRISTOPHER DAIKOS is an Educational /
Psychological Consultant at Continua Group in
Seattle, WA. He works with school district administration and staff for the design and implementation of special education interventions. Chris
holds master’s degrees in special education and
educational leadership and policies, and is pursuing a PhD in education psychology from the
University of Washington.
References:
Reid, Patterson, & Snyder, 2002; Rutherford, Quinn, & Mathur, 2004; Walker, Ramsey, & Gresham, 2004; Department of Education 2015; Newman, Cameto, & Knokey, 2009; Newman, Wagner, Cameto, Knokey, & Shaver, 2010; and Stephens & Lakin, 1995, Clayton R. Cook, 2014
26 essentials | winter 2016