Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

School Teaching Special-Needs Students Alongside Typical Learners Expands

By Emily Frost | September 23, 2014 10:40am
 The IDEAL Academy serves both developmentally challenged and typical learners. 
School Teaching Special-Needs Students Alongside Typical Learners Expands
View Full Caption

UPPER WEST SIDE A private school that caters to developmentally and physically challenged students alongside typical learners has expanded to add a high school.

The K-8 IDEAL School, which was founded to encourage a more inclusive education model, opened the IDEAL Academy this month on the fifth floor of 270 West 89th St.

IDEAL School was created in 2005 by parents who decided they weren't satisfied with the city's options for integrated classrooms, in which special-needs children learn and participate alongside mainstream students.

Launched with only 20 students in 2006, the IDEAL School now counts 150 students, according to director of communication David Byrnes. About 70 percent of students are typical learners, while 30 percent have identified learning differences, he said.

This month, in addition to welcoming an inaugural ninth-grade class, the school also moved its middle school grades into the West 89th Street building. The younger grades are housed in a five-story brownstone at 314 W. 91st St.

The challenge in forming an inclusive high school is that development gaps get even wider as students grow older, explained co-founder Julia Harquail, whose 15-year-old daughter Katherine has Down syndrome and is currently in ninth grade at the school.

Harquail and other parents valued the model so much that they began brainstorming about creating a successful inclusive high school a few years ago.

A team of parents and administrators together designed a high school curriculum in which students split their time between classes based on developmental level and by age. 

In the core classes — math, science, English and history — students are grouped based on their developmental level in each subject.

For instance, a ninth-grader excelling in a subject could end up taking a class with students from an upper grade, making for a more challenging experience than he or she might encounter at a school where curriculum is standardized by grade level, Harquail said.

In other non-core subjects, however, students are placed in a small group determined by age. Within those classes, teachers differentiate and tailor their teaching methodology depending on students' abilities, she said. 

During a robotics course for tenth-graders, for example, students' projects and assignments would likely look different from each other.

Teachers are expected to be well-versed in evaluating a student's learning style, sharing that insight with them and adapting their teaching to match it. 

"Teaching children how they learn and being able to modify your [teaching] plans, that benefits everyone," Harquail said.

One of the biggest hurdles for the school is reassuring parents of mainstream students that their children will be challenged in the inclusive environment, Byrnes said.

But Byrnes said once they see it in action they're more comfortable, noting that about 80 percent of parents who tour the school submit an application.

The IDEAL Academy is also in the process of applying for certification to offer an International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous curriculum based on a set of international standards.

"It’s that Good Housekeeping stamp of approval for a new program," Byrnes explained. "It will assure some families."

A big selling point and a major principle of the school is also that it offers a chance for students to develop real empathy and a readiness to work in diverse environments, he added.

When a student sees a wheelchair-using classmate, they think, "It's not a child in a wheelchair, it's Jimmy who happens to be in a wheelchair. But I see Jimmy, I don’t see the wheelchair," Byrnes said. 

While there are only four ninth-graders currently enrolled at the IDEAL Academy, the school is officially launching the program next fall and setting up tours and open houses next month, Harquail said.

In time, the school hopes to grow to about 30 students per grade in the high school.

Tuition for typical students is $36,800 per year and $58,200 for students with special needs who receive additional support services. Forty percent of students receive financial aid, the school noted.