Coconut Creek, FL: 'Chill Room' helps SPED students with "emotional regulation"

Feb 28, 2025, Tap into Coconut Creek (FL): New “Chill Room” at Coconut Creek’s Monarch High Proves Popular, Helps Special-Needs Students

The “Chill Room” that opened about a month ago at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek has been so popular that some students are reluctant to leave when their time is up. 

The new sensory room, which took about a year to set up with community support and donations from Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, is designed for special needs students, school officials said. It opened on Jan. 31.

Monarch High has about 47 students with unique needs who receive specialized instruction, said Novelette Pitt, a teacher who specializes in working with them. This group was the first to use the room. 

Eventually, the more than 300 special-needs students in the general education population will also be able to utilize it. 

School officials are setting up a schedule to allow those students to rotate into the room, she said. 

It includes sensory devices like a hammock, cushions, special lights and light beams, a sensory wall with different textures ranging from soft to rough, and gel beads, and it can comfortably accommodate up to 15 students at a time. 

The room aims to help students develop a level of sensory control, which assists them with emotional regulation, staying on task, and social skills, Pitt said.  

The project to convert a portable classroom into the Chill Room started when Felicia Davis, a job coach at the school, asked members of Calvary Chapel if they would donate one. 

“They really helped us out financially,” Principal James Cecil said.

In addition, church volunteers helped paint and set up the room, he said. 

It took about $18,000 and a year to order supplies and organize the volunteers to complete the project.  

Students with disabilities often struggle with communication. . . .