a few helper methods for region-ness

closes CNVS-15955

Change-Id: Idc155f75e2ed04c39c43f8e095a76848283a6af1
Reviewed-on: https://gerrit.instructure.com/42088
Reviewed-by: Rob Orton <rob@instructure.com>
Tested-by: Jenkins <jenkins@instructure.com>
Product-Review: Cody Cutrer <cody@instructure.com>
QA-Review: Cody Cutrer <cody@instructure.com>