Four days a week, you will not find Sturgeon Bay School District occupational therapist Jillian Laurent inside a classroom but rather outside enjoying the outdoors with students. Laurent recently became a certified nature-based pediatric therapist as part of her Sawyer Self-Regulation Alternative Program Administrator role. She helped pilot the program last year, bringing a nature-based approach to students to help them focus on their emotions and learn essential skills to help them in the classroom. The students share their feelings and perform several exercises before participating in various nature-based activities. They then reconvene to share their feelings at the end of the day. Laurent noticed how important nature-based play and learning have benefited her kids, and she is thankful that Special Education Director Lindsay Ferry was open to her introducing the concept at Sawyer.

Ferry says the program acknowledges that while we all have similar struggles, we do not all process those struggles in the same way.

The Sawyer Self-Regulation Alternative Program is just one of the ways Ferry says the district tries to be proactive rather than reactive with its students, hoping to get them on the right track sooner.