Good Schools, like good societies and good families, celebrate and cherish diversity.
- Deborah Meier

Special Needs

While all children have individual educational needs because we are all unique, some children have more specific needs or extreme strengths or deficits that may benefit from more intensive intervention not provided in the mainstream classroom.

It should be noted that we provide accommodations for these children not only for their own benefit. We believe that their presence, both in the mainstream classroom and in separate classes, helps all of our children to develop the ability to value others for their strengths rather than their weaknesses (and, therefore, to value themselves for their own strengths), to learn caring, kindness and responsibility for others, to feel useful in assisting others, and to develop a sense of themselves as part of a diverse and interesting community.

We address special educational needs in a number of ways.

• Learning Support Team: Our learning support team provides individual or small-group instruction to learners who have identified specific learning disorders in academic areas such as reading, writing, or mathematics, as well as to those who have difficulty in social or behavioral skills. The number of hours provided per week may vary from one-half hour to several hours, and is determined in cooperation with parents and teachers.
• Classroom “Shadows”: Sometimes children who can access the mainstream curriculum without difficulty may still have behavioral or attentional problems that are severe enough to necessitate the presence of an adult helper in the classroom. Shadows are trained to minimize intervention, with the goal of eventually withdrawing completely and allowing the child to function independently in the classroom. Only one child per mainstream classroom is accepted into this program.
• The Harbour Class: Four children with global or pervasive developmental delays are accepted into The Harbour Class. This class provides a very intensive and individualized course of study, while also joining the mainstream classes for activities and classes that may be appropriate for them (e.g., lunch, music, art, and various field trips).
• The Children’s Institute: The Harbour School’s “sister school” is The Children’s Institute of Hong Kong, a school that provides one-on-one Applied Behavioral Analysis programming for children with Autism. In the upcoming 2008-2009 school year, The Children’s Institute will have one classroom with only four children. These children will be provided with their own individual program of study, and will join The Harbour School for assemblies, celebrations, and those classroom activities that may be appropriate for them.
• Programming for the Academically Advanced: While most project-based learning activities may be adjusted to challenge advanced learners within the classroom, it is sometimes useful to provide additional, accelerated, or enriched programming for children who are extremely precocious. This can be done through pull-out programming, the use of technology, or the use of external distance learning programs. (For example, we have several children who work online with the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth in lieu of or in addition to the classroom programming in math.)