Transitions

We believe that students deserve goals and plans for their lives after the Rebecca School. We recognize that this planning should begin in early grades, should be linked to their individual goals and the goals of their parents, and should be consistent with the Department of Education requirements. We envision classroom and community curriculum as student-centered and thinking-based, consistent with the DIR® approach. To that end, the Transitions Learning Program has been established to meet the needs of our students 16 years of age and older. As students enter the Transitions Learning Program, classroom teachers, related service providers, and families work together to create individualized DIR® home and school transitions plans which nurture students’ developmental, social, and academic growth.

This year’s program includes four classrooms, each with a head teacher and transitions facilitators which provides a dynamic DIR® classroom curriculum, as well as three weekly individualized transitions lessons for each student. The transitions staff designs these learning experiences by using students’ passions and strengths as motivation to engage in academic inquiry and community experiences. Our primary goal is to foster student initiative and agency through these highly motivating activities to increase student autonomy. Each transitions classroom engages in weekly outings into the community. These outings provide meaningful learning opportunities through the DIR®/Floortime™ framework for students to engage in daily living activities while fostering developmental and academic growth. Regular community outings include: grocery shopping, doing laundry, monitoring hygiene supplies, working on mapping and public transportation, budgeting through restaurant experiences, taking care of class pets by going to the pet store, and other field trips related to students’ personal and academic interests.

Students continue to work on their individual developmental goals as staff use these outings to work on shared attention, self-regulation, and social problem-solving skills amongst peers in a broader range of environments. Students increase their academic achievement through connecting classroom math, literacy, science, and social studies lessons to the real world application of this material. The Rebecca School believes home and school collaboration is vital to student growth. The Transitions Program conducts weekly contact with parents and caregivers to increase consistency in working toward our students’ transitions goals. The Transitions Program is also offering home Floortime™ coaching to parents and other related service providers.