Student Support Services

League School for Autism > Programs > Student Support Services

Specialized Instruction

League School offers a multidisciplinary, collaborative team of specialists who provide a wide array of services to meet the individual support needs of each student. Services are based on a student’s Individual Education Program (IEP) goals as well as skills the student and their families have identified as areas for growth.

Each classroom is assigned a specific team of specialists, who collaborate with the teaching staff, the parents, and the student to develop a service plan.

In most cases, our specialists integrate services into the classroom and/or work environment to help ensure the skills are functional and generalizable to the real world. Support services include:

Teacher and student working on language skills.

Speech-Language Therapy

Our speech-language pathologists (SLPs) support students to be competent, confident, and active participants in social interactions.

Goals includes not only the ability to communicate wants, needs, and emotions effectively but also to develop secure and trusting relationships with others. Our speech-language pathologists support students in the classroom using their preferred mode of communication to share messages with others, whether through spoken language, body language, or the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Using a developmental approach, SLPs create goals and programming that allow students to share joy in everyday activities and social relationships.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapists (OTs) utilize a holistic approach to intervention by supporting the student to engage in meaningful daily activities.

Using a developmental approach, OTs assess and create goals to support self-care skills, sensory processing, emotional regulation, fine and gross motor skills, play skills, community engagement, and vocational training. Occupational therapists work with the student, teachers, and caregivers to identify barriers to participation and develop strategies to remove those barriers for improved quality of life. Working with the student’s educational team, they can be found assisting students in the classroom, in our sensory gym, in the school’s Independent Living Center, on community outings, and on job sites.

Physical Therapy

For students who require physical therapy through their IEP or a doctor’s order, League School maintains contracts with local agencies to provide services to the student.

Physical therapy is not included in tuition rates and is billed to school districts/funding agencies on a monthly basis.

Student and teacher working in the behavior department.

Behavioral Department

Each team at League School includes a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) and a behavior technician. The goals of the behavior department are to work with the multidisciplinary team to develop and monitor programming for any students whose emotional or physical dysregulation creates obstacles to educational progress or participation.

Our BCBAs utilize principles of progressive applied behavior analysis (ABA) that focus on embracing neurodiversity and strive to develop meaningful skills valued by the student. Our approach is trauma-informed and views behavior as an attempt to communicate or regulate emotions. The behavior department may perform formal assessments, including preference assessments, functional behavior assessments, and functional analyses. Using the principles of ABA, the BCBA builds a student support plan in collaboration with other members of the educational team (e.g. occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, clinicians, teachers, etc.) to detail student-specific strengths, interests, active engagement strategies, proactive regulatory supports, and any responsive supports that help a student who is experiencing dysregulation.

Clinical Services

Many students at League School are supported clinically in a number of areas beyond Autism that impact their daily lives, social relationships, and their ability to be available for learning.

Our clinical staff, all of whom are licensed social workers (LCSW or LICSW) or licensed mental health clinicians (LMHC), work closely with our other specialists, teachers, outside providers, and families to help support students and their families in all areas of growth. Our clinicians provide individual and group counseling with a focus on helping students regulate and understand their emotions. Using a push-in model, clinicians support students in using coping strategies when experiencing emotional dysregulation, work on social pragmatic skills to build healthy relationships with others, and develop self-advocacy skills to empower them to speak for themselves and exercise autonomy.

Other support services the clinical department offers include co-facilitating social skills groups, and identifying community supports for students and their families (such as recreational and community support services, educational advocacy, transition planning and adult support, MassHealth services, mental health services, guardianship guidance, and crisis/grief support services). Our clinical team uses a wide variety of clinical interventions including, but not limited to, Play Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Narrative Therapy. Our clinical staff are devoted to our mission of being a Trauma Informed Program.

Nursing Services

The nursing department at League School collaborates with the student’s multidisciplinary team to provide daily care for our students, including maintaining physical health, medication management, and medical assessment.

A nurse manager heads up the department and oversees the medical care students receive from registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs). Nursing support is provided 24 hours a day through onsite nursing or on-call nursing access. League School also has a medical director, who provides consultation and reviews all medical policies and procedures. The nursing department implements and manages a comprehensive school/residential health program consistent with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and the Department of Early Education and Care (DEEC) regulations. The department also provides and coordinates all in-service training for school and residential staff in CPR, first aid, medication administration, seizure protocols, and current health issues. The department is in daily contact with parents, physicians, and other health care providers to provide the most updated information.

A teacher using music as a learning aid.

Additional Education Services

League School offers a variety of classes that give students the opportunity for physical and creative outlets. These include art and music classes, culinary arts, and adapted physical education (APE).

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about our support services, please reach out to League Admissions Coordinator Lynne Goyuk, at admissions@leagueschool.com or 508-850-3900 ext. 171.