Welcome to the Van Cleve Program. Our school provides services for students with learning and social problems, ages five through thirteen. I have been with the program since it began with a pilot program of one class and had the pleasure of helping it to grow to its present eleven classes.

  The classes in the Van Cleve program are small with six students, a teacher and a teacher assistant. This ensures a lot of individualized attention and fewer distractions for the students and as a result students are able to make excellent progress. Because our students are able to be successful in school, they feel good about themselves and for many students for the first time school is a positive and enjoyable place.

  Of course, there are a lot of people in and out of the classroom that help ensure student progress. There are Psychologists, Social Workers, Educational Specialists, Speech and Language teachers, Psychiatrists, Occupational Therapists, and Physical Therapists. Students also attend many special classes outside the self-contained classroom, which are provided by teachers who are certified in a particular area. This includes physical education, library, music, theater arts, computer lab, home and career skills, art, and Spanish.

  We also share all of the facilities that our campus has to offer such as the swimming pool, bowling alley, gymnasiums, sports fields and recreation hall with the other programs of the Institute.

  Some of our students sleep over during the school week and these 'residential students' take advantage of classes provided by recreation specialists and are supervised after school by our enthusiastic child care worker staff and by the houseparents who safeguard the students over night.

  All students in the Van Cleve Program are on the point system which uses positive reinforcement to teach responsibility and to motivate them to follow directions and get along with their peers and adults. Students love trading in their hard earned points for the tangible rewards we offer in the point store such as school supplies, games, toys, and personal items.

  When students age out of our program at age thirteen, our goal is to send them to a less restrictive setting. This might mean a residential student going to a day program, or any student going to a program with a larger class size. We have had many students who have completed High School and have gone on to college. We always enjoy seeing some of our "graduates" come back to visit and relate their experiences as successful young men and women.