Via School Program Via School, a non-public school offering education and behavioral treatment to developmentally disabled students aged 5-21, accepts students who need and can benefit from highly-structured, behaviorally-based programming offered in the context of a warm and family-like environment. As a rule, Via students have educational, behavioral, or medical needs that require more intensive staffing and behavioral programming than can be offered in classrooms in their own school districts. Sometimes, these are students who have not flourished in prior placements in larger non-public schools and require a smaller, more intimate setting to succeed. Referrals can be made by parents, school district program managers, case managers or care providers. Placements must be made by the students' school districts through the Individualized Educational Program (IEP) teams. Levels of functioning vary greatly in Via students. In the area of grooming and hygiene, for example, one student might be learning a basic skill such as hand-washing while another might be working on a hygiene and grooming self-check list in preparation for an upcoming job interview. We are able to accommodate this wide range of skill-levels by grouping students in small learning pods to work with other students of similar abilities and learning styles.  Crafting Words and Letters IEP's are highly individualized, building on each student's unique gifts and strengths to develop the skills s/he needs to succeed with her or his particular life-challenges and opportunities. All IEP goals and objectives are drawn from the state's core curriculum in Language Arts, Math, Health, History, Social Sciences and Physical Education. Progress on the goals and objectives is reported quarterly. Standardized testing is done each year. Via's standards-based curriculum includes a rich variety of activities. Weekly or twice-weekly classes in Movement and Relaxation and in Art are taught by visiting instructors. A weekly swimming class is taught at the local YMCA. Our WorkAbility program encourages the development of vocational and pre-vocational skills as students work "on-the-clock," to earn money for desired purchases or activities. The WorkAbility program has recently begun two enterprises: a ceramics studio and a cafe. To learn more about the WorkAbility program, click on the navigation bar to the left  Swimming at the Y Some of the students we work with have developed habits of physical aggression as a reaction to the challenges life sends them. We use a non-violent approach to help these students learn to cope more effectively with their frustrations. Via staff is regularly trained in nonviolent crisis intervention procedures by a trainer certified through the Crisis Prevention Institute. We have found this approach more helpful than approaches using " hands-on" containment. Like all of us, Via students have a strong need for friendship. They need both the opportunity to make friends and the experience of spending time with non-disabled or neuro-typical peers. Via is fortunate in having Black Pines Circle School as a neighbor and in having developed with Black Pines activities that benefit both student populations. Like most teenagers, Black Pines Circle students tend to feel frightened of people who are different and approach their community- service at Via School with some trepidation. The experience of becoming more comfortable around our students and learning some of the ways these different people are much the same as themselves helps educate the hearts and minds of Black Pines students and supports their self-esteem. Likewise, exposure to the world-view and culture of neuro-typical teenagers in a safe and non-judgmental environment helps educate the hearts and minds of Via School students and supports their self-esteem. To learn more about the Mainstreaming and Reverse-mainstreaming programs and to learn what some of Black Pines' eighth-graders think about their experiences at Via, click on the navigation bar "Social Skills & Friendship Program" to the left. No amount of quality programming can address the deepest needs of the students we work with . To "thrive" in the deepest and widest-ranging meaning of the word, these students need to feel appreciated and valued for exactly who they are. They need to experience themselves as givers as well as takers, not as developmentally-impaired people who somehow need to be fixed but as unique individuals making valuable contributions to the various communities in which they live, study, and work. This respect for differences is an important part of program philosophy. We try to reflect this respect in the day-to-day interactions between all members of the Via community and in between Via Center and the community-at-large. |