TRINITY, Fla.— REConnections Education Center is scheduled to welcome its first class of students on August 12.
- Each student will receive occupational and speech therapy
- The school will start off with grades K-6
- Key part of the program will include teaching students life skills
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The private school aims to give students with special needs and their families an alternative to public schools or other private institutions that might not meet their needs.
“It is a huge, huge need,” said Executive Director Joleen Fernald. “We have some other private schools in the area, but the challenge is that they’re very focused on certain diagnoses or certain types of children.”
Fernald said the goal of REConnections is to look beyond that diagnosis to a child’s individual needs. She said the program will use the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-Based model, also known as DIR/Floortime.
According to Fernald, the model focuses on students’ social and emotional development as a foundation for learning and also takes individual differences into account, like speech and language skills or sensory processing.
“By supporting those areas and their social and emotional development, we can increase their relationships, build connections with staff and peers, which also allows them to gain from their education,” said Fernald.
The school will start out accepting K-6 students, but the plan is to expand through the high school grades as students grow. Fernald said student-to-teacher ratios will be kept small to ensure individualized attention.
Each student will also receive one hour of both dedicated speech and occupational therapy per week, but the school’s assistant director said that’s just the beginning.
“It’s not just one hour of occupational therapy and speech therapy a week. There’s therapy infused throughout the entire program,” said Assistant Director Lilibel Bernhardt.
When it comes to academics, Fernald said the school will use the Montessori philosophy, letting children take the lead in their education in subjects like math, language arts, and culture.
A key part of the center’s program will involve teaching life skills, like setting the table or serving a meal.
One of REConnections’ first students will be Alison Bryant, 8. Alison has Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. It’s a condition caused by a gene mutation or missing piece of genetic material that causes a variety of symptoms, according to the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation. Alison is nonverbal and communicates using an alternative augmentative communication device, or AAC.
“She needs her own curriculum,” said Alison’s mom, Jennifer Bryant. “She can’t tell me characters in a book. You have to go by what your goals for your child are in her life versus what the goals of a group of 6,000 children are.”
Bryant said she’s looking forward to seeing what the school will mean for her daughter.
“Her ability to have OT therapy and speech pathology every day, all day through the hours of school – I’ll get teared up. I’m so, so excited,” said Bryant.