Beacon School

Population Served: ED | SLD | ID | AUT | OHI

School Serves: Both sexes and grades 6-12 and Post Senior

Staff to Student Ratio: 1:3

Description:

Beacon School offers a therapeutic educational environment designed to meet the needs of special education students with emotional disturbance, autism spectrum disorder and students with other disabilities that may affect their behavior in the school setting. Students attend school for six periods per day and receive academic, behavioral and therapeutic support throughout the day. A full curriculum is offered designed to meet common core standards for all academic areas. Occupational therapy, speech therapy and counseling are provided for students based on the needs assessed by the IEP team.

Components:

Therapy: Students will receive individual and group therapy on a weekly basis. The goal of the therapeutic component is to address school related issues and develop positive interventions from behaviors that are preventing success in the classroom. The therapist participates within the classroom when not meeting with students. This allows for additional support for the students should they require immediate intervention support.

Behavioral Intervention: A behavioral coach is placed full time within the classroom. Our approach to success includes a behavioral incentive program for all students. The classroom staff and the student develop behavioral and academic goals. This translates into earning points each period for on task compliance. The behavior coach records this information by period. As students earn points they are able to progress and earn more privileges within the classroom and on the campus.

Collaboration: The teacher, behavior coach and therapist work closely with the family in order to provide everyone on the team the ability to best support the student. Additional meetings with the family are encouraged for those students that appear to have difficulty maintaining progress within the program.

Academics: Beacon offers academic instruction according to the needs of the individual student. This includes both the academic coursework required to meet the standards at the student’s grade level and an immersion into the functional world of independent living.

Social Skills Training : In addition to social skills lessons in the classroom, students will practice skills through role play and various exercises to help them learn new skills. They will also have the opportunity to integrate their learning into the community. Daily instruction will include a social skills class designed to assist students in the following domains:

• Behaviors
• Communication/Listening
• Managing Emotions
• Flexibility
• Using Social Skills at Home, School, Work and in the Community

Community Inclusion: When students are ready, they will have the opportunity to be integrated into our work training program. Through this program they can to begin to apply the skills they have learned in the classroom to a community setting, while also building job skills.

BEACON also offers: