Philosophy and Approach
Our Philosophy
We believe that every student has the ability to communicate their wants and needs, thoughts, and feelings. We are here to assist them in overcoming barriers and supporting them in finding their voice.
Student-centered.
We look to understand our students from all angles – social, emotional, behavioral, academic – and meet them where they are. The student’s priorities are at the center of all our decisions.
Strength-based.
Our programs are not cookie cutter or one-size-fits-all. We pinpoint each student’s strengths, then develop a curriculum around their self-identified goals.
Future-focused.
Early on, we gain an understanding of each student’s interests – what brings that student joy – so we can provide them with the right resources, path, and skill sets to get there.
Contextualized learning.
While we focus on individualized skills, we make sure our students can generalize their learning to different environments, situations, and groups.
Our Approach
Trailblazing since the 1960s, we have been a school of new ideas and ways of doing things. We value a flexible, wide-ranging approach that allows for diverse teaching methodologies, strategies, and techniques to meet the needs of each student. To create and maintain a cogent and effective personalized program, we rely on the teamwork of our staff as well as a unique educational framework, the SCERTS® Model.
Holistic mindset.
Our program is based on a multidisciplinary approach covering a comprehensive range of skills – social, emotional, academic, behavioral, vocational, and community – in day, residential, and vocational settings.
Beyond ABA.
While League School provides progressive Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) as an educational approach, it is applied as all other learning tools are – when the educational team believes the approach will build on the strengths of the student. ABA is only one piece of a student’s comprehensive educational program.
Team-based.
Our specialists – clinicians, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and board-certified behavior analysts – work together to integrate their services within the classroom and residences so that students can generalize skills and interactions in natural environments across the day. Our class sizes range from three to no more than eight students. Each classroom includes a head teacher and at least one assistant teacher, alongside the specialists.
Innovative model.
To maintain a cohesive, customized and impactful program, we apply an innovative educational model, the SCERTS Model, as a systematic framework to coordinate and streamline individualized assessment and educational programming. We were the first in Massachusetts to introduce this model into a private school serving Autistic students.