Special Area Services
The following special area experiences are offered:
Physical Education (PE)
To ensure students are as exposed to all sports/physical education activities as their peers, our PE program team adapts and modifies equipment associated with the activity.
Music
In our music program, students study musicians, gain exposure to artists, different genres, and develop an understanding of music and movement. In addition, musical instruments are modified to allow students to express their musicality.
Art
Our students experience art through their least restrictive modality. Students will make artistic choices, and instructors will facilitate. Therapists modify art materials to increase participation.
Field Trips
Community-based field trips are tied to our curriculum and address student’s individualized educational goals and objectives. Trips include but are not limited to social participation, generalization of Activities of Daily Living (ADL), vocational training, and transitional experiences.
School Nutrition Program
Our school program is committed to promoting healthy food choices as designated by the USDA, National School Lunch Standards. We offer a full-service lunch program with menus in accordance with the Department of Agriculture (DOA) and approved by a certified Nutritionist. An alternative lunch is provided daily that meets the nutritionist’s approved unique dietary needs of individual students. In addition, our kitchen supports student’s therapeutic feeding programs as prescribed by the student’s speech therapists, including modification of textures to include pureed, chopped, and/or ground consistencies.
Technology
Each classroom is outfitted with smart board technology, multiple iPads, laptops/desktops, and a wide array of adaptive support equipment. The students take a technology class once per week to learn how to use the aforementioned equipment and to learn other computer and technology skills specific to their IEP goals and objectives.
Innovation
Our school program also offers cutting-edge, state-of-the-art technology for students with multiple physical and developmental disabilities to ensure increased independence and maximal potential. Our newest addition is our SWIVL Robots. SWIVL is an innovative video collaboration system that provides equitable access to our in-person and remote learners. It works by connecting to multiple markers for audio throughout the room and uses the tethered iPad (or another mobile device) for streaming. As a result, post-pandemic teachers will be able to record lessons for students for multiple exposures for mastery and assist students who are more medically fragile back and forth from in-person services.
Clinics
To fully support our parents, we offer onsite clinics, including physiatry, nutrition, orthotics, and wheelchairs. Our consulting doctors and clinicians evaluate and assess students and collaborate with the student’s personal physicians to address any issues timely. Our consultants also work with the student’s entire TD team to ensure all disciplines weigh in on any modifications, procurements, or changes. If new equipment is procured, parents are trained onsite on proper utilization.
Social Work/Home Visits
Supporting students’ and families’ psychological and social well-being is a top priority for our Social Workers. As your liaison from home to school, your child’s social worker will coordinate everything from counseling, attainment of information, resources, and referrals to help solve problems. They are also here if you just need someone to talk to.
Our school programs wrap around support between school and home with social worker-directed home visits upon request. We have assisted families in modifying student self-care situations, increasing mobility, and maximizing communication opportunities in order to increase student’s independence.
Kitchen
Our kitchen area allows students to support their school wellness and individualized goals and objectives. Students spend time creating healthy meals in conjunction with the curriculum. They learn about healthy choices and all other skills associated with meal preparation. As they get older, the students also learn the roles and responsibilities of food service staff.
Adaptive Playground and Accessible Garden
Our adaptive playground allows students to move freely from one activity to the next. Teachable social skills moments are captured in this natural setting and are reinforced by the student’s transdisciplinary team. When students of multiple ages and abilities gather at the playground together, they discover their similarities are greater than their differences and learn from one another.
Our accessible garden allows our students to be horticulturists. From investigating the life cycle of different plants to growing vegetables for cooking class, we help our learners generalize skills taught in our ULS curriculum at the same time meet the criteria delineated in our state mandated School Wellness policy.
