THE CENTER FOR EDUCATION

THE CENTER FOR EDUCATION

2 Narrows Road

Westminster, MA 01473

The Center for Education, a private school providing special education for students with intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior, serves youngsters from five to twenty two years of age. Centrally located in Westminster, children from the greater Worcester and Athol area use its day and extended day programs. Its goal is to enrich the lives of students with cognitive, social, behavioral, and communicative disabilities so that they may rejoin their peers in their neighborhood public schools. Curricula are based not only on one’s abilities, interests, needs and aptitudes but are also aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.

Key aspects of the Center’s educational program are:

· An integrated curriculum emphasizing use of positive supports to help children build their skills in all areas;

· Applied behavioral analyses and ongoing behavioral assessment to help students achieve social, language and academic success and behavioral self-control;

· Individualized academic assessment that leads to fully individualized instruction;

· A strong emphasis on functional communication;

· Use of a variety of instructional methodologies including precision teaching, errorless learning, discrete trial training, and self-monitoring.

Perhaps the most important principle of the Center is its reliance on Community Based Instruction. We believe that children learn best if skills are not only acquired but also applied and practiced in natural environments. All students access the community as part of their educational program. Community inclusion may involve banking, shopping, recreational activities, community based work experience, supported employment, travel training, and stranger training in neighborhoods where students naturally participate. Students have scheduled time to use local community and public school facilities such as the Mount Wachusett Community College for swimming and exercise. Many students have paid and volunteer placements (e.g., Leominster Hospital, Gamache’s Bicycle Shop, and The Community Journal) with the support of job coaches.

In order to assist students in returning to their local schools whenever possible, the Center provides:

· Coordination and collaboration with public school personnel.

· Frequent written and phone contact between school and home.

· Focus on the behavioral and social skills that permit easy assimilation into new environments.

· Consultation with school personnel who will be working with the individual upon his/her departure from the Center.

· Frequent opportunities for family members and school personnel to join students in plays, special events, outings and celebrations of progress at the Center.