Orient hosts therapeutic AEA classroom

While most students have had to find education opportunities outside of Orient as the Orient-Macksburg school district dissolves, a new classroom has arrived to provide a therapeutic classroom environment for select students with Individualized Education Programs.

Rising Hope Academy is an alternative schooling program provided by Green Hills AEA, with locations in Harlan, Hastings and now Orient. Hosted in the O-M school building, students can be in first through fifth grade and attend this program on recommendation from their home district IEP team.

“It’s a five-day-a-week program. They get a very similar school experience as any of their peers back in their home district,” Green Hills AEA Director of Growth and Strategic Partnerships Chad Bartlett said. “The difference with our programming compared to a typical public school setting is, one, we have low student-staff ratio. We have a teacher, a behavior consultant and a paraeducator in that classroom, so three adults with a maximum of eight students. Every student in that classroom also has access to a school mental health practitioner that provides individualized therapy.”

While in the classroom, students focus on social skills building and other targeted interventions alongside their regular school subjects.

“The goal is always to get our students the skills they need to be successful back at their home school placement,” Bartlett said.

When a student begins to show success in the program, they will slowly be brought back to their home school district.

“As time goes on, we continue to add more time and more time until really the whole team determines they probably don’t need us anymore and they probably are good to just get back to their regular setting with their peers,” Bartlett said. “We can always just support from afar once that transition is a complete transition.”

While Rising Hope Academy had been operating successfully for a number of years, there was a lack of options for students in the eastern section of Green Hills’ district. The AEA team thought Orient would be perfect, though there were unexpected issues with the dissolution of the O-M School District.

“We knew that their school was closing, so it’s been a little bit tricky. There’s some challenges there because we don’t have a school district that we’re routinely partnering with, but we met with their superintendent last year,” Bartlett said. “It’s a great place. It’s a great space to use and it’s a great geographical space for our eastern most districts. We started exploring what that might look like and were able to form a partnership for the year, and we’re hoping that that continues even as the school officially becomes closed at the end of this year.”

As a former alternative program principal, Bartlett said he’s seen the importance of these programs firsthand.

“We surround these kids with the help that they need, and we hope that that makes not only a difference for the student, but also for the school and the family. All of those things end up making happier communities,” Bartlett said. “When you don’t have access to resources and you don’t have access to the experts, here comes all the stress. It adds stress to the school; it adds stress to the families and parents; it absolutely adds stress to the kid, and we want to play our part in not letting that happen if we can help it.”

Parents or staff members on a student’s IEP team can submit a referral for their student to Rising Hope Academy on the Green Hills AEA website. Once a referral is submitted, Green Hills will screen the student and interview others involved to see if the student is a good fit for the program.

“We don’t want to just accept students to accept students; we want to accept students that we feel can really benefit from our programs,” Bartlett said.

So far, Rising Hope Academy has served more than 75 students and partners with 30 school districts.