Ridgewood High School will offer new special education courses next year geared toward students who have mild to moderate disabilities or are on the autism spectrum, but still high functioning.
The new bridge and personal advance and career enhancement courses will offer more specialized services to students whose disabilities may keep them from excelling in the regular curriculum, but who are too advanced for the life and peers programs now in use.
“What we’re trying to do is just fill the gaps in our services and continue to create opportunities for our students,” said Principal Chris Uhle. “We want to give as many chances as we can and encourage kids to take risks and experience new opportunities while we can still support them.”
In the bridge program, students will have the opportunity to learn how to care for themselves, prepare to live independently and work or attend college after leaving Ridgewood.
These students will enroll in a standard curriculum with courses including English, math and science, but will also take a variety of “life skills” courses, said Michael Maiorano, division chair for special education.
“We’re going to teach them how to make change, how to work with a checking account, how to go to a store with a list,” said Maiorano. “We’ll teach them about hygiene and how to pay taxes, how to fill out an employment application — all the things that we take for granted that these kids don’t always think about.”
In the life program, students learn similar skills, such as how to follow a recipe or do laundry. But, Maiorano said, students enrolled in this course often have a host of disabilities and medical issues and are typically non-verbal.
Students with mild to moderate disabilities have been taking life courses occasionally, said Maiorano, but many are too high functioning to benefit from the environment.
The bridge course will offer a balance between learning basic skills and a standard curriculum for students who aren’t benefiting from the lowest performing classes or the tradition instructional classes, he said.
“They’re going to learn more about general interactions with adults outside the building,” he said.
The bridge program will also include trips outside of the school, where students will be tasked with figuring out what to do if they need to go downtown, for instance.
“We’ll take them through the steps of where to get on the bus, how to buy a bus pass, what to do about stopping for lunch and how much they should spend on lunch, those types of things,” said Uhle.
The personal advance and career enhancement course will be especially designed to focus on career and college readiness and will only be offered to juniors and seniors. The curriculum will include mock interviews, resume workshops and rotating schedules of unpaid internships with companies in town.
“We’ve found that over the years our special education students have trouble finding jobs or keeping jobs, or simply knowing proper work etiquette,” said Maiorano. “This will focus on things we can teach them to help them through problems on the job.”
Students will take courses a few days a week and then will work in the field about two days per week. Through the internship program, students will get hands-on experience working in a variety of different stores and businesses.
“”They’ll actually be able to apply what they’re learning in the classroom into the field,” said Maiorano.
The personal advance and career enhancement program will be led by two staff members who specialize in helping set students up for life after high school. The bridge classes will be taught by the school’s existing special education staff.
The bridge program will be open to students in all grades and will enroll about 30-40 students who are recommended by teachers and parents, said Maiorano. Both programs will begin in August.
Taylor Hartz is a freelance reporter
