Editor's Note: This story was updated on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, to clarify San Benito CISD's comments on the student population with autism. 

Over a quarter of the students at San Benito CISD who have been identified as children with special needs are diagnosed with autism, according to the district. 

Those students at the La Paloma elementary campus are being aided with a new resource.

The campus unveiled a “sensory room” meant to calm and comfort students with autism and other developmental disabilities.

“It was born out of that necessity to help them,” San Benito CISD occupational therapist Bettina Cisneros said. “To help regulate their sensory differences, to provide them with that sensory input throughout different intervals of the day so that they can be calm and regulated — and then return to class in that optimal state for learning — and to improve attention and focus."

Cisneros said those students are the ones who struggle the most with sensory processing disorder, and are sometimes misunderstood.

Posters around the room have activities that students can do to exercise and stay calm.

The district's goal is to have a sensory room at all 12 of their elementary schools. They are currently working on adding a sensory room at two more schools.

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