Objective

SSDC provides districts with an ability to develop an understanding of student behavior as it relates to academic and social/emotional functioning.  Our goal is to observe the student in SSDC’s therapeutic milieu, provide social/emotional skill building groups while also assisting students with their academic work that has been provided.  

Some questions that SSDC strives to address for each student can include but is not limited to the following:

• What behaviors seem to impact the student the most in the classroom setting?

• What types of responses seem to assist the student to remain engaged and focused in the classroom?

• What social strengths and challenges does the student seem to present with?  How can those be best addressed to ensure growth and progress?

• What emotional challenges seem to occur while the student is attending SSDC and how are those challenges best managed and addressed?  

• What support would the student need as they return to the public school setting?

SSDC collects data on all students who participate that reflects time out of learning, refusals, active participation, access to adult support, etc.  SSDC will strive to also tailor data collection methods to meet specific student and situational needs.  Districts have also sought out updated evaluations in the following areas; Psychological Evaluation, Academic Evaluation, Speech and Language Evaluation, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Evaluations.  

Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA) have often been requested; however are often deemed inappropriate as it will not provide information on behaviors that were problematic in the public school setting.  Oftentimes, students who attend SSDC demonstrate minimal behaviors due to the smaller setting which subsequently makes the FBA minimally transferable in its findings.