The Bridges Program at Mary G. Hogsett Primary School, a resource classroom for preschoolers with significant language and social delays, gets its name because it’s designed to bridge the gap between a resource classroom and a general education classroom.

“And that bridge is individualized,” said Maggie Colwell, preschool special education resource teacher. “It just means we’re working on those skills, and when you gain the social skills to be able to play with others and share toys and functionally play with materials or you gain the language skills to be able to get your wants and needs without tantrums or without using aggression, then you can bridge sometime over into the general education classroom.”

Every student served in the resource room is enrolled in a general education classroom. The amount of time they spend in the resource classroom depends on their individual needs. The classroom is designed to be focused on sensory needs and includes a sensory corner that can be changed out regularly with different materials, light covers, and more. There is a lot of focus on music, movement and sensory activities to teach concepts and skills the students need.

“It allows them to be able to sit and focus more because there’s less visual distraction and less auditory distraction,” Colwell said.

It’s also a smaller classroom, capped at 10 students, whereas a general education preschool classroom is capped at about 20. There are also three adults in the resource classroom, allowing for more individualized instruction.

Through Hogsett’s partnership with the Kentucky Autism Training Center, representatives from the center visited the classroom and gave feedback to help Hogsett design the classroom. The classroom opened about a year and a half ago. At the end of last year, some students were able to transition back into their general education classroom full time, and more students who needed the services were added to the program to get the classroom’s numbers back up to 10.

A trend in the special education sphere is an increase in the number of diagnoses of autism. Students don’t have to have autism to qualify for the resource classroom; in fact, some students who have autism stay exclusively in their general education classrooms.

“We had several school districts come and observe [the Bridges Program],” Colwell said. “Because everyone is seeing an increase in need. It’s not just our school district.”

Before the creation of the classroom, resource services for preschool were provided in the general education classrooms. But students weren’t seeing sufficient progress, Colwell said.

“What we were seeing is that because those classrooms are very sensory-overloaded, those students were severely dysregulated, and it was causing behavioral issues for them and it was also disrupting the learning of the other students in that classroom,” she said.

Some behavior management strategies in the resource classroom include sensory bins so students can use fidget toys or other items to calm them down, staff who can take students to a sensory room if they need a sensory break, and Colwell can switch up resources available in the sensory corner depending on student needs.

Chief Academic Officer Suzanne Farmer said about the Bridges Program, “It’s a different model for us. The Hogsett team has been innovative in creating a model that supports the unique needs of our youngest learners.”

The program has seen success, and several parents whose students have been involved in the program have given very positive feedback, Colwell said.

“The data shows that we’ve seen a lot of good success,” she said. “We’ve been able to meet a lot of IEP goals. We’ve been able to make a lot of progress and have students bridge time into the regular general education classroom, and it’s been a benefit.”