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Say "You Can Do It" to our students
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CIRCLE ACADEMY: Empowering Students for Success
Gerber School: A Safe Place to Learn
...Empowering Students for Success
in School, at Home, and in the Community.
Mission:
CIRCLE Academy prepares and empowers each student for successful experiences in school and throughout their lives by providing a structured, nurturing, and therapeutic learning environment that emphasizes family involvement. The program seeks to enable students to develop in the four principles of the Circle of Courage: Belonging, Independence, Generosity and Mastery.
Our Philosophy:
The philosophy "Kids Needs First" guides our daily choices and actions while holding us accountable and loyal to our mission.
Founded in 1998, CIRCLE Academy is named for the Circle of Courage model. Today, CIRCLE provides special education and therapeutic intervention to over 70 Champaign County students ages 5-21 who are referred by their home school district because of behavioral or learning
disabilities.
CIRCLE offers our students:
- Individualized Special Education Programming
- Small class sizes (average 2:7 ratio)
- Individual and Group Therapeutic Counseling
- Therapeutic Behavior Intervention Programming
- Vocational Training Opportunities
To be considered
for enrollment, students must be eligible to receive
special education services in one of the disability
categories for which CIRCLE Academy has been approved
by the Illinois State Board of Education including:
• Emotional Disability (ED)
• Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
• Cognitive Disability (CD)
• Other Health Impairment (OHI)
• Autism
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Developmental Delay (DD)
In most cases, the primary
disability is Behavior/Emotionally Disordered. The student
may have other disabilities which are secondary.
For more information about CIRCLE Academy, please contact
Linda Fox at 217/367-3728 or click
here to send us an email.

...is a safe and quiet place to learn
Located on the Cunningham campus, Gerber School provides
special education for young people in our residential
treatment programs.
Most Gerber students are significantly behind grade
level in their education, and learning disabilities
and mental health issues pose challenges to their catching
up. Highly-skilled special education teachers and teaching
assistants work as a team with residential program therapists
and staff to provide coordinated educational support.
Occupational therapy techniques, small class sizes,
and individualized educational planning are hallmarks
of the Gerber School approach to education. An important
goal of education at Gerber is to help students make
the transition to public school.
Recognizing that higher education is an option for decreasing
numbers of our students, Gerber School has also invested
significant resources in providing a comprehensive vocational
education program for students. Starting with classroom
micro-enterprises for younger students, and leading
to stipended and paid work experience, the Vocational
Education program reinforces math, reading, writing,
and communication skills while providing valuable experience
in the work world. In addition to preparing students
for their future, we have found that vocational education
improves students self esteem while also improving school
performance.
For more information about Gerber School,
you may call Shawna Scherer at (217) 367-3728 or
click here to send us an email. |