High School Programs

SLCD's High School program is innovative and challenging. We have high expectations for our students to succeed. Our students have learning disabilities which are language based. A language disorder is the abnormal acquisition, comprehension, or expression of spoken or written language. The disorder may involve all, one, or some of the phonologic, morphologic, semantic, syntactic, or pragmatic components of the linguistic system. Individuals with language disorders frequently have problems in sentence processing or in abstracting information meaningfully for storage and retrieval from short- and long-term memory (ASHA, 1980, pp. 317-318). The school day has 10 instructional periods with a home room period at the beginning and the end of the day. Students are departmentalized during the day and are required to wear uniforms. Classes are scheduled between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm with intensive academic programming and daily homework assignments. The high school has developed a six year program for students who require extended learning and multi-semester instruction for core content courses. SLCD utilizes a general education curriculum with instructional goals aligned to New York State Learning Standards.

Most classes are arranged by students' grade level. Teachers utilize a differentiated instructional approach in class to meet the individualized needs of students. The general education curriculum is modified to each student's level of language comprehension so that they can assess the content material. The High School curriculum has been developed for students interested in regents and vocational programs. All students receive at least one period of daily reading instruction with a variety of reading programs including Wilson and Fast ForWord. Fast ForWord, FM systems, and other assistive technologies must appear on a student's IEP. Students also receive socialization programming 3x per week and group counseling 2x per week. Speech/language and occupational therapies are provided in group as a push-in service to avoid any instructional conflicts with the required academic instruction.

The educational path for each child will be different since our students have distinct strengths, skills and abilities. Some of our students excel in math, technology, information processing, graphic arts, dance and music. Our goal is to identify the strengths for each child so that these skills can be developed and translated into higher educational or vocational opportunities. For example, every student is provided with the opportunity to learn about computers: keyboarding, word processing, internet research, web page development and design.

Parents are expected to participate in educational training classes during the evening and participate in fund-raising activities with the PTFA. Parent and student contracts are a significant part of SLCD's program philosophy. Parents and students need to understand our expectations and the commitment they need to make to learning. SLCD will be exploring the introduction of the Collaborative Problem Solving Approach (Ross Greene, Ph.D.). School incidents can either be resolved in school between students during peer mediation sessions, or parents are called in to participate in a negotiated resolution. SLCD uses a teasing/bullying program which develops social sensitivity to others.

Teachers/specialists can be contacted on a daily basis for telephone conferences concerning student instruction and homework assignments. Parents can also schedule individual appointments with teachers/specialists at school. There are several required parent-teacher meetings which are scheduled during the school year. Data are collected on all students concerning: homework assignments, behavioral incidents, attendance, lateness and academic learning.

We think about each of our students in terms of their strengths and abilities. SLCD's mission is to help each student achieve.