Building upon the success of Karner Blue Education Center, the school district’s first standalone special education facility, the 76,000-square-foot Pankalo Education Center serves the unique needs of students with emotional-behavioral disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and developmental coordination disorder with an arts focus that encourages students to showcase their creativity in a calming atmosphere.

The design departs from traditional school floor plans by creating pods of learning communities with classrooms bordering common areas that have their own secure entrances from the school corridors. The environment is open and warm to assist faculty and support the students as they learn life skills of self-regulation, coping, communication, joy, and socialization.

Combining philosophies in educational and behavioral health, the therapeutic learning environment creates a series of micro-environments such as sensory, breakout, and alternative spaces to give teachers new tools to support students’ individual needs. These multiple levels of intervention allow a student to self-regulate in spaces throughout the school that minimize disruption to the classroom.

The common areas provide room for students to pace and move outside of the classrooms without going into the hallways. Sensory rooms feature student-chosen LED lighting, music, and sounds designed to calm and help them self-regulate. Intervention rooms allow staff to work with students one-on-one in a controlled setting with limited distractions.

In the hallways, sightlines are controlled to obscure exits and discourage students looking for an “escape” from running through the corridors.

Because senses are heightened for this special student population, daylighting reduces the need for artificial lights that can hum or create adverse color spectrum. A mechanical penthouse and duct work are strategically placed to mitigate any possible triggers caused by noise, air movement, and vibrations. Material and furniture selection are specified for acoustics, durability, and safety.

Educators can shape the environment to student and pedagogical needs with flexible furnishings.
Beyond the sensory benefits, the large windows and seating options create a playful and child-friendly environment, giving students equal chances to expend energy with other children or relax and focus on their own. This includes the innovative floor-level windows in the classroom that allow students to cocoon and find personal space in the classroom setting.

This groundbreaking approach has been successful: incidents of restraint and seclusion and staff injuries have fallen compared to previous learning spaces that were inside traditional school environments while the school serves a significantly larger student population.