Leading by Lighting: LED Upgrades Provide a Cutting-Edge Solution for Special Education

A Greater Chance to Learn

I recently had the privilege of working with the Jeffco Public School District’s Fletcher Miller School, a special education institution in Lakewood, CO, on a LED lighting and controls upgrade. The renovations undergone are a cost effective and energy efficient solution, with their implementation allowing for a 50%-60% lighting power reduction; however, that’s just one motivation for this upgrade. It has been widely proven that the low hums and minute flickers of fluorescent lighting are detected by special education students due to their heightened sensory systems. This agitates and distracts students, creating a negative effect on their learning environment and classroom participation.

DLR Group’s LED design removes harsh lighting and significantly minimizes audio effects, providing a calm and consistent learning space for students. Alongside these upgrades, we provided specialized controls for teachers to dim classroom lights, as well as a color-changing LED wall in their sensory room.

Creating a Soothing Environment

LED fixtures are highly regarded in the special education community due to the calming effect they can have on students. Irritated students are unfocused and, in the case of those with special needs, must sometimes leave the classroom and retreat to a sensory room to collect themselves. As discussed by The Christopher Douglas Hidden Angels Foundation, sensory rooms stimulate all the senses of the human body to create a soothing, interactive experience for occupants of all abilities.

Research has shown that tuning lighting to a cooler spectrum can keep students alert and focused, whereas warmer lighting exudes a relaxing, calm environment. Our design provided a way to put this research into practice with our dimming system.

DLR Group’s design for Fletcher Miller’s sensory room is the centerpiece of this project, focused on a wall of controlled LED lights that produce colors on the OYGBIV spectrum. You may have noticed that red was deliberately left out of this spectrum, as it has been shown to create negative reactions in some students with particularly high color perception. The included colors create a soothing environment for agitated students, allowing for quicker reintegration into the classroom and, as a result, more learning time. The Fletcher Miller School is one of a few special education institutions to have this type of system in its sensory room, making it a pioneer in the field. These children have a unique relationship with their senses, and it’s amazing to see how this relationship intersects with their education.

Passionate Partners

This was a united effort, and the success of this project is measured not just by the outcome, but by the passion shown by the district and our industry partners. This project was spearheaded by Maggie Anderson, the district project manager. Ms. Anderson has a child with special needs, and she served as an invaluable resource to DLR Group throughout the project’s development. She not only advised us on student concerns but also on creating a teacher-friendly environment.

Teachers now control the intensity of light in their classrooms, allowing them to alter the LED lighting levels in accordance with the desired mood for the activity underway.

One of the light fixtures that we wanted to use was not available in the school’s required voltage. Because the manufacture was so enthusiastic to support this project, they customized a version of the fixture that met Fletcher Miller’s voltage requirements.

By uniting the district’s unique understanding of their students, our engineering team and industry partners have created a truly personalized solution to meet the needs of this educational environment. I am humbled to learn that I could make such a difference in the quality of education with changes as simple as LED upgrades. Most importantly, I am proud of the impact this will have on the students’ educational careers and futures.