Finding schools for children may be very overwhelming and nerve-wracking, especially in the expedition for special children. With multiple options coming their way, parents may need to evaluate a few factors before picking a choice. In this scenario, private schools for special training may be assistive for their unique and additional offerings to bridge the gaps.
Even with this knowledge, some ambiguity regarding how to choose a befitting private school is common. To assist you with your search, we here will look into value-adding guidelines in filtering out an apt school. Further, we will also suggest a few options you may feel worth considering.
Choosing the best special private school: The considerations you must check out!
In order to support children with learning compromises, the parents should always look into special programs and therapies the school might offer. When one visits the school, they must ask if there are therapists or counselors and also their specializations. Another crucial attribute is that these institutions may also provide professional assistance ensuring regular checkouts with therapists.
Likewise, here are some considerations that you may consider as a mentor while choosing a proper private school:
1. Background research about features
It is also very important to do research on the school’s policy on accommodations and modifications for students. Features here may imply about how a student will learn, while specializations focus on what the student is learning about. Both of these are important classroom factors, especially for special children.
2. Ensuring healthy Communication about the updates
Parents should be timely informed about every crucial information about schools. The faculty here are all trained professionals, ensuring not only academic support but also assistance in extracurricular activities. With their knowledge and experience, they may assure to keep mind of children with ease simultaneously making them masters in multiple fields.. Ensuring these along with timely updates to parents are often pivotal too.
3. Legal Deliberations
The parents should make sure that they are aware of the legal requirements they are entitled to. It is important, especially for private schools, that one may research the “Special Education Reimbursement Law”. This way, mentors can get assistance in various obligations in law apart from the tax aspect.
4. Check if the curricula gain value
After school programs and activities as offered by the schools, it is time to analyze the curriculum. Parents may verify if the school is providing the befitting curriculum and necessary support that their special child will need. Some schools provide educational activities outside the regular school hours which can be before or after school, or even as part of summer vacations. They may also clarify if the school provides supplemental educational services like free tutoring, generally after school hours. The learning approach of the school faculty is another related aspect.
5. Ensure safety
One of the most important factors while selecting a school is to know how safe it is. It is important for the schools to have no ragging or bullying. If it does exist, try to know how the school handles these practices. Most often, there is a special cell in schools to take care of children.
6. Demographics and Environment
While it may not be an important factor, parents can also consider the factor of the location of the school. Whether you want it within the neighborhood and how far out you are willing to send your child for school. These decisions may later impact the aftercare, attention span, and activities of the child.
Private schools for students with learning disabilities- Our recommendations for you!
1) AIM Academy in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, USA
The Academy in Manayunk (AIM) is a registered not-for-profit organisation. Being a school with the largest number of students with learning compromises, it aims in providing students with the skills and strategies needed to overcome the challenges associated with LD.
The organization helps in identifying and building the strengths of the students along with helping them to find their talents. It is one of the first education partners in an international neuroscience research innovation hub organized by Haskins Lab at Yale.
The intriguing features of this school include special summer courses and a special research center. This way, they often come up with revised and working strategies for special students.
2) Forman School in Litchfield, Connecticut, USA
A co-educational boarding and day school in Litchfield offers preparatory programs for grades 9 to 12 along with a postgraduate program exclusively for students with learning compromise. It also offers a 3-week summer program in July for the students.
Founded by John and Julie Forman in 1930, the school provides great opportunities in Athletics as it is an integral part of community life. The students here can participate in either a competitive interscholastic league or even a recreational sport. All Forman coaches are certified by the Positive Coaching Alliance.
3) Eagle Hill School, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA
An independent school for children with learning incapacities that claim to help in developing skills in the child with the aid of academic tools, boosting their self-confidence and self-advocacy.
The academy believes in evaluating children on the basis of the specific nature of their LD. The school then provides personalized educational programs along with training in athletics, music, art, and also community services.
Further, it may offer students the opportunity to be in the student council for building leaders and service to these students. The faculty and administrators regulate the children’s progress and recommend them for graduation. Placements of the trained candidates is another point to tilt towards this choice.
4) Trident Academy, USA
Established in 1972, this academy claims to focus on ameliorating training for special learning students. Offering training for all k-12 grades ensures to offer special support for a diverse range of seven different learning differences like dyslexia and dyscalculia.
Apart from sequential training via the Orton Gillingham approach, this institute may be marked distinct for its student volunteers. Further, for higher grades, there is an option for limited boarding too, which makes candidates cope with regular academics being in special schooling.
Parents can visit the website for contact and admission details. Moreover, financial assistance is also offered to selected students.
5) Acces Academy, USA
Located in the city of California, this private school is one of those few picks that work for learning compromised children. It was established in 1994 with training for children from K-12. With 170 seats, this non-profit organization claims to offer education to compromise with to compete. Following the Orton Gillingham approach, this academy ensures to provide speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and individualized tutoring, WIth an admirable mentor-student ratio of 1:12 in higher grades, special care may be expected by parents here. Other edges of this school include funding for selected students under the umbrella of Medicaid and private pay.
6) Aditya Birla Integrated School, India
It is a noteworthy co-ed day school for special needs that was founded in 2014 in Mumbai. Associated with the National Institute of Open Schooling and Cambridge Assessment International Education, it provides offerings like academic resources, outdoor activities, and sports activities like gymnastics and aerobics, etc. the school also organizes excursions and field trips as per the yearbook’s topic.
With a disciplined daily schedule, the institute has varied learning methodologies like speech and language therapy, animal and aided pet therapy along with behavior modification treatment. The medium language is English.
7) Green Gate School, USA
With a mission of bringing parents on board to provide dyslexic learning such an academic process that helps them build confidence, this school works on the Orton-Gillingham-based multi-sensory program. They assist students in managing their differences to help them strengthen their learnings and build social competence and academic skills.
Students who have dyslexia or other learning compromises in reading, spelling, or writing are welcome to enroll in this school-based in the USA, where there is special emphasis on dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
With individual tutoring and self-advocacy instruction, Green Gate school claims to be one of the 12 reputed schools in the US that are accredited by the Orton-Gillingham program. The student-teacher ratio is 6:1, so special attention can be given to all students. Besides having special program-based learning, this school also supports assistive technology.
8) New Way Academy, USA
Being situated in Pheonix, Arizona, New Way Academy is one of the few private schools in the USA that have a specialized program for students having compromises in learning. Established in 1968, this school has a mission of providing a grade-level curriculum to individuals who face challenges while studying, reading, writing, and speaking.
Having state-of-the-art remediation for areas of challenge, this school thrives on unlocking the strengths and talents of students who have dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, Asperger’s, or any other learning compromise.
This school is based on the Orton-Gillingham approach and it also supports speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, individualized tutoring, and much more. The school inculcates and trains the teachers in such a way that they are fit for special education. Moreover, it is equipped with smartboards to make learning convenient and facile for these challenged learners.
9) Frostig School, USA
Established in 1952, Frostig School is a 1-12th grade school with a student/teacher ratio of 6:1. The teachers are trained in a way to give special and extra attention to students that need help with reading, learning, and performing in school.
With the mission of providing education and making learning easy for children with dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyslexia, ADHD, ADD, and high functioning autism, this school has special dyslexia accommodations like educational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychotherapists, counselors, social skills program and much more.
The teacher training is quite extensive, where they are guided about assistive technology and ways to help such students excel in academics.
Private schools for learning disabilities: Why consider?
To ensure befitting education strategies for all, these institutes take care of special education students. Here are a few ways how these academics can turn fitting for special learning children:
- Tailor-made for your children
Many students with learning disabilities feel different from other students around them. Private schools for learning incapacitated often act as a ‘safe space’ for them to express themselves while receiving the education freely. This encourages the child to take part in classes and interact more, which thereby helps in opening up themselves and also developing a personality. The school curriculum and program are designed in such a way that it always supports and uplifts the needs of the students.
- No overcrowding, and thereby special care
The class strength is not in large numbers. Small class strength enables the teachers to be more attentive towards the children. Further, The teachers hired in these schools mostly hold a master’s degree in special education along with extra training to ensure quality. To be precise, these institutes often provide specialists in speech-language pathology.
- Helps in forming a value-adding community
Most importantly, the class here often includes children with learning compromises; This stipulates the learners to interact with one another, which may drastically improve their interactive skills. Pupils can gain strength from the community formed with an assurance of assistance anytime, thereby strengthening them morally.
- Tax considerations
When it comes to the tuition fee, most often they tend to be on the higher end, but there are schools that provide financial aid. Further, Tax deductions also help in covering most of the cost of these specialised private schools. There are cases where public school districts may pay for a child in order to enroll in a private school for learning disabilities. This way, parents may need not worry about financial aspects in case an appropriate choice is made.
- Bonus accommodations
Private schools often may not have the capacity to incorporate a wide range of accommodations into a school program as the students here may be of varying learning styles. In special private schools, these areas are ameliorated with specialized labs and manipulatives for facilitating the learners. This way, students can ensure better learning as the curriculum learning is not only dependent on tuition but also on understanding and accepting their disabilities in ways that are empowering.
Conclusion
Researching and admitting your child to the best schools with the best facilities and academic resources is hard for parents with children without learning compromises. One could only imagine how it is for parents with children who face difficulty with learning. But that does not stop us from networking and finding the best opportunities for our children. Thankfully a large number of schools for special children are currently available across nations. We hope this curated list of schools can be a good starter for your research in finding the best schools for your child while you abide by the guidelines to make your research fruitful in the end.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,