Special Education
Out of a deeply-rooted belief that all children are unique and have varying gifts and challenges, Harford Christian School has been, and remains committed to making available special education services to families with exceptional children. Special Education at HCS is referred to as Extended Learning.
No Bureaucratic Obstacles
The Extended Learning Center (ELC) is staffed with more than four full time faculty members who are uniquely equipped to meet the individual needs of students that are unable to be met in a regular classroom environment. Auditory learning disorders, dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome, and autism are among the exceptionalities that HCS has addressed in its educational setting for decades.
HCS is not bound under state or federal bureaucratic policies and laws regarding our special education program. We, however, do view and carefully merge existing IEP’s or 504 Plans of incoming students into our own IEP format. Qualified ELC program directors carefully screen students with learning differences to determine if our program is able to meet the individual needs of the student. ELC teachers collaborate with parents and regular classroom teachers in a team context to determine the best instructional setting for each student in each subject area. ELC fees are added to regular tuition fees and are assessed based on the level of student need and implemented ELC services.
High Expectations
It is a great challenge to set educational expectations at a level for each student that they are stretched, yet are able to meet academic success. It is the goal of the HCS ELC to determine the “least restrictive learning environment” for each ELC student. When that is the regular classroom, ELC staff and classroom teachers will collaborate together. When that is a resource room, the ELC teacher will provide individualized instruction in a small teacher to student ratio setting. Providing what is “needed” in tandem with student effort is a formula for academic success and our continuing vision for HCS special education.
