Project Description
High Road School of Delaware
Since 2004, High Road School of Delaware has been serving students by providing an intensive, structured, individualized special education program aimed at strengthening each student’s academic and organizational skills, social and emotional abilities, sense of responsibility, job skills and self-esteem. Our goal is to get our students to the point where they can successfully reenter comprehensive schools and the community. We accept students from all over the greater New Castle County area.
Our Students
Students are referred by their school district to attend High Road School and are generally in grades 3–12 (aged 7 to 22). They face disabilities in a variety of areas, including Intellectual Disability, Emotional Disability, Autism, Other Health Impairments, Specific Learning Disabilities, and more.
Our Staff
We are proud to employee certified special education teachers, an Occupational Therapist, a Speech and Language Therapist, Counselors, and Job Coaches.
High Road School of Delaware has been around since 2004. We have great relationships with the districts and a great success rate of transitioning our students back to their comprehensive setting. Our academic model and behavior/level system is grounded in current research and methodologies that take all IDEA classifications into consideration and tailors instruction / behavioral management to the individual student.
Our teaching starts out by first finding each students current ability / grade level, and then increases academic rigor by challenging them on their instructional level. In doing this, our students feel confident in their abilities and motivated towards their studies. All instruction is based off of the Common Core Curriculum.
In addition, our school employs a full time social worker to host groups based on the “PEERS Curriculum for School-Based Professionals”. This curriculum hones in on social skills training for adolescents with any emotional exceptionality. Along with group counseling our social worker / counselor provides consultative individual counseling and mentoring as needed.
The entire High Road School of Delaware staff is incredibly dedicated to ensuring continued growth in our program every school year. We aim to be as involved with our students, their families, and the community as possible for the benefit of the children and adolescents we serve. Accordingly, we’re always working to deepen and expand our commitment to our students through such means as hosting parent support groups, planning a variety of enriching extracurricular activities, and participating in community-based altruistic efforts, like charity walks and volunteer work.
All of the programming that is designed to transition the student from school to work emphasizes preparation for productive employment after graduation. To make this employment as successful and fulfilling as possible, we help the student explore his or her interests and then build upon natural talents in choosing possible career paths. As students mature, we encourage them to gradually become more self-reliant. Our Transition Services staff aids in this process by giving the students just the right amount of independence and interaction with the wider community, while still providing the supports necessary for the students to feel secure and confident.
School-to-Work Program
Our School-to-Work Program offers students the opportunity to participate in true-to-life jobs within the school setting. The end goal of the program is to develop the students’ employment skills and social skills in order to maximize their potential for success in the real world. As such, students seek to obtain school jobs by first filling out an application and interviewing for the position they are interested in, as they would in real life. Once the student obtains a suitable position at school, they are held accountable for their attendance and performance, so we work with them on such aspects of employment as punctuality, responsibility, following multi step instructions, and working independently.