2025 PLSEA Grant Recipients
Tools for Focus, Regulation & Independence
Sarah Demers -GD CID
This grant will fund the purchase of hands-on, developmentally appropriate materials for use in an autism center-based elementary classroom during structured station rotations. Requested items include engaging, small-scale manipulatives such as building tiles (e.g., Magna-Tiles), sensory bins, and fidget tools.
These materials will support students with autism in developing critical skills, including fine motor coordination, sensory regulation, task engagement, and independent play. Many students in this setting benefit from tactile and visually engaging tools that help maintain focus, reduce anxiety, and support smooth transitions between activities.
The items will be incorporated into daily station rotations, allowing students to practice structured choice-making, increase time on task, and build independence in a supportive, predictable environment. Additionally, fidget and sensory-based materials will provide appropriate outlets for movement and self-regulation, helping students remain engaged in learning tasks.
CER Visuals for E-STEM
Lori Bui - Elementary ESTEM Specialists
As the new elementary E-STEM Specialists, we are excited to formally implement CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) in our students' science writing across all elementary buildings in the district. With the new science standards being more rigorous, we want to prepare our students not only for their MCAs but also to get them started on the right path to thinking critically about science and to carry that with them beyond grade 5.
These posters are a necessary visual for elementary students as they work to craft responses to the focus questions that structure the new FOSS science curriculum. Science is no longer just a regurgitation of facts learned during class. Students as young as kindergarten are being asked to explain unknown phenomena using evidence backed by scientific reasoning. These posters will help the E-STEM specialists provide clear and cohesive guidance to their K-5 students district-wide as we begin this new chapter in science instruction.
Focus and Fine Motor Development
Katie Leinhardt, Anna Raway, Kymn Peacock - PLHS Lifeskills
We would like to create simple, age appropriate, close ended workboxes to support students in the High School Lifeskills program. Close ended tasks are concrete tasks with a clear endpoint or amount of work. They are geared to the student's developmental level or "just right challenge" so that they can work toward independence in completing tasks while building attention, cognitive, and fine motor skills. Having "work boxes" created and ready to use increases the efficiency of staff working with students so that they don't have to create things as needs come up, purchase new materials, and create the close ended set up with materials.
Coffee Table Toys
Christie Bauer - TOMS
This year I have an extra desk set up near the front of the room and I put out some small puzzles. Students naturally congregated in small groups to work on the puzzles between classes. I was pleased by the quick opportunity at passing time for students to play, interact, and challenge themselves to problem-solve. I have since encountered a social media post about "Coffee Table Toys" (https://www.workspaceforchildren.com/twfc-blog/2026/2/5/my-kids-are-12-16-and-18-i-still-keep-toys-on-the-coffee-table) that inspire older kids to be creative and play. In building up a collection of "Coffee Table Toys," my goal is to have a variety of these types of toys I can rotate in and out through the year to offer my sixth graders at passing time and when they finish work. My expected outcomes include: opportunities for creativity and play, chances for group interaction and socialization, and non-screen-based options for students to engage with upon work completion.
WEIGHT!
Lisa Treat Urban & Kymn Peacock - EW
Weighted lap pads/large bean bags are used with students both in special education and in the preschool classroom in order to provide regulating deep pressure input that helps students to calm, attend, and maintain better body awareness. They can also be used as heavy work for a regulating activity during a sensory break. The weighted beanbags we have are frequently used on a daily basis by many different students. The weighted lap pads/beanbags are used within at least 6 different break spaces/motor rooms as well as for individual students in the classrooms.
CID Math Manipulatives
Sara Hemmesch - PLHS
I have started building visual tools for the math curriculum we adopted a couple years ago. I would like to create a class set of binders for each level of math that I teach to help organize their visuals. I would also like to build a collection of math manipulatives that students can use for hands-on math practice and exploration.
High Interest Readers
Ellie Remer & Rojin Urrutia - PLHS
9th grade English is centered around the practice and love of reading. First quarter alone is built around an independent reading unit where students choose a book and complete quarter long assessments for said book. We are requesting these funds to provide more high interest books in class so students can not only find genres and titles they are interested in, but also have a book that fits their current reading needs while pushing them to be life long readers.
Ready to Learn
Andrea Holloway, Amy Jones & Vanessa Soria - JP
The overarching goal of this project is to support sensory processing and self-regulation needs of students with Autism and other neurological differences who have needs in the areas of sensory processing and self-regulation.
Offering tools and strategies that provide a variety of sensory input (proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile, visual, auditory) helps to provide a just right challenge to the nervous system and produce more adaptive responses to everyday stimuli.
Creating a "Sensory Oasis" that supports regulation and is separate from the learning space supports regulation and return to learning activities sooner. These tools (i.e. musical projection light, bubble mirror, deep pressure) allow for controlled visual and auditory stimuli, helping a student "reset" their nervous system after dysregulation or period of overstimulation.
