Norris Academy provides year round educational opportunities for all residents who are admitted to the program.  Certified special education teachers with specialized training around developmental diagnoses work collaboratively with the clinical and group living staff to provide individualized instruction and provide a closely structured and supervised atmosphere to promote academic success for all residents. The educational program includes a full curricula including commonly-accepted subjects such as mathematics, language arts, social studies and science.  In addition, Norris Academy also recognizes that some students’ education and developmental needs do not connect to traditional school curriculum and is able to provide more individual-based curriculum based on each resident’s educational and developmental needs.  Some common resident-specific curricula for the most severe educational barriers can include basic skills like eating, toileting, sharing, and meeting other basic developmental milestones.  Norris Academy best meets these individual needs through the IEP process.

An Individualized Education Program (IEP) can be developed for each resident (if one does not already exist) after reviewing past educational achievements, educational assessment data and clinical observation.  Within a week of admission, our educational staff work to complete a full assessment of a resident’s educational functioning and to make contact with each resident’s home school to evaluate educational trajectory.  Residents can be placed in one of our seven specialized classroom settings, which are designed to meet the needs of each resident based on their intellectual and developmental skills in the classroom.  If needed, formalized testing can also be requested to help re-evaluate a resident’s needs or to assist with diagnostic clarification to help drive educational services.