Walt Disney Elementary staff presented a multi-part update to the Gates Chili board on Nov. 18, describing three focus areas they say support student attendance and academic progress: identity and connectedness, tier-1 social-emotional learning (SEL) and behavior supports, and autism and neurodiversity programming.

"Every student, all 420 students and all 120 staff members created an identity project to tell a little bit more about themselves," the presenter said, describing schoolwide displays created for open house and parent-teacher conferences. The school also named 16 "Dragon Quest" ambassadors (student leaders) and said nearly 50 additional students sought leadership roles; the staff said it will form small focus groups so more students can contribute to school improvement efforts.

On SEL, the school described expansion of the Zones of Regulation curriculum, a "zones" toolkit in every instructional space, and regulation stations in hallways supported by occupational therapy. "These stations serve as a tier-1 schoolwide support accessible to all students," said Miss Steeves, the school's occupational therapist. Staff described weekly "tool of the week" announcements and a check-in/out Microsoft form to collect usage data for the regulation stations.

For autism and neurodiversity, the presenters described bimonthly classroom lessons, a core-communication board in the cafeteria, and a 6:1:1 program with five classrooms supported by special educators and therapists. The school said it is piloting a CERTS framework in three of the five classrooms to align the program to research-based developmental frameworks.

Board members thanked staff and families for the presentation and for early work on data collection and family engagement.

What happens next: the school will continue rolling out the initiatives and collect data from the regulation stations and surveys to inform program decisions.