OUR SCHOOL
We are thrilled that Circle of Friends was recently given the designation of a Private, Alternative Education School by the Oregon Department of Education. We hope that this information helps with deciding if Circle of Friends could be the right fit for your child. For more information, please contact us.
Program Description
In September 2023 we will open our school doors in Cottage Grove, Oregon. At Circle of Friends we prioritize individualized learning opportunities that maximizes youth participation, amplifies youth voices, expands mobility, and fosters independence. Each component of our school program works toward increasing the youth’s success for full participation in their school placement and community. Youth are given the opportunity to apply acquired skills in an inclusive setting through partnerships with local school districts and surrounding schools. We accomplish this through the following:
–Holistic educational plan centered around youth success and functional skill
development
-Teaching methods/instructional techniques that integrate multidisciplinary team
goals + treatment plans into functional skills and recreation activities
-Purpose driven learning activities that look ahead to equip youth with necessary
skills to support all stages of their life
-Educator attention during learning and recreation activities that allow for individual
youth’s processing and response time
-Integration of youth’s interest across learning and recreation activities
-Movement breaks outside of equipment to allow for independent mobility such as
rolling, crawling, wiggling, self ambulation, and access to floortime
-Working in collaboration with all individuals in the youth’s life across all settings;
home, school, and community, including private practice therapists
-Providing access to trainings that support youth’s skill development, resource
coordination, community based activities appropriate for the entire family, and
opportunities for no school + respite break camps
If your youth or student would benefit from an educational placement at Circle of Friends School, please contact our administration team by phone (541) 321-0107 or email jenn@circleoffriendsschool.org to schedule an initial screening.
Eligibility Criteria/Who Would Benefit From Our School
-A youth/student who requires the use of specialized mobility or orthopedic devices, tools to support fine motor skills, adaptive equipment and adult dependency in order to be an active participant across all settings.
-A youth/student who has complex communication needs associated with severe speech and physical disabilities and require the use of a modality other than natural speech as a primary communication mode to meet daily social and communication needs.
-The youth/student’s primary disability includes one or more of the following but not limited to:
○ Orthopedic impairment/physical disability
○ Visual impairment/low vision/blindness/cortical vision impairment
○ Deafness/hard of hearing, significant
○ Intellectual disability
○ Undiagnosed genetic disorders
Due to the design of our educational program, in order to fulfill our mission, we are unable to consider admission for a youth/student with behaviors that are dangerous or would significantly disrupt or otherwise impact participation of other students’ learning, safety, and classroom operation.
Other considerations:
-Can Circle of Friends School educational or nursing staff appropriately meet the health, safety, and physical care needs of the youth/student throughout their school day?
-Is our program plan and the intentional goal development appropriate to meet the learning needs of this youth/student without significant alterations to our staffing and physical setting?
-Does the youth/student’s family have a working relationship with their home school district and have informed the appropriate school district representatives of the interest in Circle of Friends School.
What does the school day/week look like? Our Alt-Ed Program is comparable to a typical school schedule with specially designed instruction across subjects of Mathematics, Language Arts, Science, Music, Physical Education, Art, Computer Lab, and Community Based Learning opportunities. Instruction will be tailored to each student’s individual needs and learning objectives. A sample school week schedule is as followed *subject to minor changes and adjustments* 8:30-2:35 pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday; Minimum day on Wednesdays 8:30-12:35 pm
For more information on your district’s policies regarding Alt-Ed placements, please see the below links
Eugene 4j: Section I: Instruction >Alternative Education Program http://www.4j.lane.edu/board/policies/
Bethel: https://bethel.k12.or.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IGBH-P.pdf //
Springfield: https://policy.osba.org/sps/I/IGBHA%20D1.PDF
Creswell: https://policy.osba.org/creswell/I/IGBHA%20D1.PDF
South Lane: https://1.files.edl.io/wrCCGlECracKYfypZBLuAtsPu3OxPXtkvqKOI5SxN3QwWHBV.pdf
Pleasant Hill: https://policy.osba.org/phill/I/IGBHA%20G1.PDF
Crow-Applegate-Lorane: https://policy.osba.org/crowap/I/IGBHA%20D1.PDF
Lowell: Look for district policy IGBHA
