High Road Program at Philadelphia – Ferguson
The High Road Program at Ferguson is a High School that is classified by the School District of Philadelphia as an Intermediate Unit. As an IU we are able to offer Special Education students individualized education within the confines of an existing school district building. We serve students who have struggled to find success in Emotional Support classrooms or in other Approved Private Schools. Our goals are to decrease behavior issues, increase participation rates, and see individualized growth based on our student’s needs. We aim to get our students involved in organizations that will help them learn about job readiness to ensure they are ready for their next step after High School.
Our Students
Students are referred by their school district to attend High Road School. They are generally in grades 9–12 (aged 14 to 21) and face disabilities in a variety of areas, including Specific Learning Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability, Other Health Impairment, and Emotional Disability.
Our Staff
We are proud to employ certified special education teachers, TACT II trained staff (crisis intervention), Licensed Social Worker, speech language pathologist, and an occupational therapist.
Our students attended several learning-based field trips around Philadelphia throughout the 2017-2018 school year. We hosted speakers from various agencies from around the city that are geared towards helping our students get involved in job training/readiness programs.
Many of our students earned elective credits in a Career and Research Development course (CRD). In that course they learned about resume building, the job application process, and the interview process. Our staff helped students build resumes, apply for real jobs, and go through a mock interview process. Our students also participated in school related jobs such as breakfast/lunch delivery, cleaning/maintenance, and general office work. Through a partnership with OVR we brought in guest speakers to discuss topics related to job readiness and career development. We helped several of our students sign up for their services. Case Managers from Office of Vocational Rehabilitation will pick up students from our school and take them to interview for jobs and internships in the community. Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) and currently working with Horizon House in Philadelphia which offers a similar program for students with disabilities.
Utilizing four specific instructional rotations, students are assessed academically, gain self-regulation skills, learn with district-aligned academic curriculums, and utilize integrated technology.
Each student enrolled in the model has individualized behavior programming which is driven by Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA). We aim to identify the behaviors that continue to disrupt our student’s ability to access their environment and learning. We then use the data collected from the FBA and classroom data to device strategies that get to the root function of the students disrupted behaviors.
