Educational Programs
Click on the program names below to jump to a description of each one.
Academic Program - Professionally planned goals and excellent instruction keep your student on track.
Best Choice - Evaluating decisions with the student to choose the best course of action for the future.
Social Skills - Includes anger management, conflict resolution, negotiation, peer relationships, personal responsibility, and more.
Occupational Therapy - Certified speech therapists and occupational therapists work with your student.
JumpStart Vocational - Learning career related skills using specific goals in many areas.
Rising Stars - Specialized services for students with Autism and/or Autistic like behaviors with an emphasis on language and kinesthetic experiences.
Behavioral Intervention - A highly structured environment in which students have very limited privileges and must earn their way back based on their completion of academic work and their ability to exhibit appropriate classroom behaviors.
Animal Therapy - Students at The ACES can experience empathy and learn compassion through the human / animal bond.
Academic Program
A professional team consisting of a state certified special education teacher, an assistant teacher and a behavior coach instructs each class of students at THE ACES. This team of professionals implements the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) and builds an instructional and behavioral plan for each student based upon the goals and objectives of the IEP.
Students are educationally evaluated by the teacher when they enter The ACES and instruction is provided according to the needs of the students. Teachers identify any academic areas in need of remediation and utilize specific materials or programs to improve competence in those areas. The general curriculum is aligned with the State of Arizona educational standards, which dictate specific skills to be mastered at each grade level. Instruction is delivered individually, in small groups and in class groupings. Elementary classes are self-contained but regroup for reading and math instruction, middle school classes may have some departmentalization and both high school programs are departmentalized.
"Best Choice" Therapeutic Behavior Management Program
If a student exhibits inappropriate behavior, he is provided assistance, redirected, warned, and finally asked to take a "time-out." The length of the time-out is contingent upon the severity of the infraction. If the behavior persists, he is escorted from the classroom and completes his time-out in another supervised area. Upon the successful completion of the time-out, staff members talk with the student about "Best Choice" alternatives to inappropriate behaviors.
The program emphasizes building the student's self-esteem by giving lots of positive feedback when making the "Best Choice" and having staff build personal relationships of trust and care with each student. The exemplary quality of our staff and the consistency of the program have allowed many students the opportunity to overcome their handicaps and successfully return to their home schools.
Therapeutic Counseling and Social Skills Program
The ACES employs three school psychologists and six licensed counselors with training and experience in working with students who have special needs. Each counselor is assigned to a student population and is always a part of the integrated therapeutic team. Counselors are available to all students and families in times of emergency, crisis or for information. They participate in the Social Skills program for all students, provide evening informational meetings and group interactive sessions for all parents, and reserve portions of their schedules for counseling therapy with students who are referred through the IEP process.
The ACES provides different levels of counseling intervention for students depending upon their individual needs. All students participate in the Social Skills program developed by the counselors and implemented in the classrooms by trained staff in conjunction with the counselors. Topics such as anger management, conflict resolution, negotiation, peer relationships, and personal responsibility are part of the Social Skills program and integrated into the therapeutic program for each student. Counselors also see groups of students who have special issues and they provide career and post secondary guidance for students graduating from the high school program.
For students who need in-depth personal/educational counseling, the counselors are available to provide therapeutic counseling with students if it is deemed appropriate and included in the IEP. The counselors consult with teachers and parents to be sure that the skills learned in the counseling environment are transferring into the school and home environments.
Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy Program
A certified speech therapist and occupational therapist are available to provide speech and language services to students for whom that service is recommended through the IEP.
"Jump Start" Vocational Education Program
The ACES sponsors a prevocational instructional program in which students learn career related skills in addition to completing their academic requirements for graduation. The program emphasizes students obtaining the necessary skills to be successful in the work environment.
Many of those skills include mastery of the following areas: Business Operation, Business Math, Business Communication, Social Behaviors in the Workplace, Personal Management, Time Management, Independent Working Skills, Community Exploration and Vocational Skills in areas such as food handling, computer skills, business management, woodworking, auto mechanics, and small engines.
Students in the Jump Start Program are exposed to career opportunities through routine field trips to active work environments in the community where they are able to observe and participate.
The goals of the program include assisting the student in:
"Rising Stars"
The ACES sponsors a program to provide specialized services to students with Autism and/or Autistic like behaviors. The classes are highly structured, emphasizing specialized instruction in communication skills, language skills, social skills, self-help skills and behavior modification.
Multiple strategies are employed by the teachers to assist this unique group of students in developing the skills they need to be successful. Language based curriculum is utilized for academic instruction with a heavy emphasis on kinesthetic experiences. An Occupational Therapist provides both group and individual therapy as directed by the IEP. Sensory needs are addressed individually and during group therapy/instruction. An Occupational Therapist works with the students on improving coordination, motor skills, and processing information from the senses. The Speech/Language Therapist works with the Rising Stars program to improve the language skills of the students and enhance effective communication.
Our teachers are trained in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) as will as Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH). Emphasis, however, is always placed on understanding the individual rather than focusing exclusively on a particular treatment approach.
Students are placed with age/grade appropriate peers (elementary, middle school, and high school). The classes have a high teacher-student ratio (minimum of three staff members for a maximum of ten students). Students enjoy all the benefits of the extracurricular activities that are available to ACES students, such as animal therapy, school spirit activities, assemblies, and participation in the Winter Festival and Fine Arts Festival. As students demonstrate skill improvement, they are considered for mainstreaming into the regular ACES program for all or part of the day.
The goals for the Rising Star Program include the following:
"FBI" Focused Behavioral Intervention Program
The ACES offers a program designed to provide interventions for students in the public schools and The ACES program who have been suspended because of severe behavioral infractions or other issues. The multi-disciplinary team as specified by the IEP determines the number of days that the student is assigned to the program and the specific criteria the student must meet to return to public school.
The FBI program provides a highly structured environment in which students have very limited privileges and must earn their way back to their public school classrooms based on their completion of academic work and their ability to exhibit appropriate classroom behaviors.
The students' day consists of bringing schoolwork from their home schoolteachers and quietly sitting at their desks and completing their assignments. The emphasis of their time in FBI is to demonstrate the following behavioral expectations:
The tool used to determine the progress of each student is the "Daily Assessment Report." This data sheet serves to track the behaviors of the students while in the FBI program. Generally students must earn a total of 60 points per day and the school district will establish the criteria for the student's return to the district school. Daily reports on the student's progress and areas of challenge are then faxed to the home school teacher and a copy of the repot is sent home to the parent indicating whether or not the student made his day and how many days of FBI are still remaining.
The goal of the program is to motivate the students to accept more responsibility for their behavior and have the students develop a greater appreciation for the home school environment.
Animal Therapy
At the ACES we have a unique opportunity to provide human / animal interactions and first hand learning in our animal education programs. We have a collection of miniature farm animals and domestic fowl at our school. The students are able to observe pigmy goats and pot belly pigs raise their young. Some baby pigs that were the "runts" of the litter, and not likely to survive, have grown up in the classroom with the teacher as Mom and the students playing the role of brother and sister!
The development of young geese, ducks, chickens, turkeys, pigeons and other birds that hatch and grow up at the ACES are witnessed first hand, every year. We have a breeding pair of emus, the worlds' second largest bird, that also raise their own young here. This is not at all common and seldom seen at Zoos. Many of our younger students really enjoy the time they get to spend grooming and walking our miniature horses and donkey, and during the winter, two of our horses with staff at the reins, pull the kids around in an Amish built, miniature horse cart... what fun!
All of our students learn about and have opportunities to care for our animals throughout the year. Some students in our "Jump Start" program are able to be a part of an "Animal Care Class" where they are directly involved in the care of the schools' animals during the school week. Mr. Luke, who runs our animal program, has an extensive collection of animals at home that he uses for education. He brings in a different exotic animal into the classroom twice a month, throughout the school year. Students may hold a giant anaconda or python, see a cockatoo or crow fly across the room or watch a monitor lizard consume a few eggs for breakfast.
The natural history of about 20 species of animals found all over the world are brought into the classroom each year. Students at The ACES can experience empathy and learn compassion through the human / animal bond.