Programs

The special education program at Ridge High School is designed to provide the student with a large number of options to help complete the requirements for a high school diploma. Please follow the links below to find out more information about each type of program.

• IN-CLASS RESOURCE - SUPPORT (ICS) is a program of instruction where the general and the special education teacher are involved in planning and implementing strategies, techniques, methods, and materials to address learning difficulties of pupils with educational disabilities participating in the general education classroom. 
• PULL-OUT RESOURCE - REPLACEMENT (RR) is a program of instruction that will be provided in a separate classroom. Instruction, activities, and assessments can be modified per the child's IEP.
• TRANSITIONS 6-12 Students with significant learning needs often have difficulty generalizing skills from an artificially structured environment into the natural community setting. For this reason, the skills are taught in their naturally occurring environment with the classroom being used as a resource for introduction, reinforcing, and practicing key concepts and vocabulary that will be utilized in the community setting (in-school and out-of-school community). The success of the program is based on the student’s ability to demonstrate their functional independence in the classroom as well as in each community setting. The program will be sensitive to the individual needs to the student.  Beginning at the middle school level the Community Based Instruction Program (CBI Program) serves the students with significant learning needs. Unlike a scheduled field trip, each visit into the community is an occurrence that mirrors activities in which students and their families would routinely engage in their daily lives. The program is designed to provide instruction in skills required for participation in a variety of community settings. And in related functional academics. The design and instruction of the classroom activities are driven by the students identified needs in the community settings and the student’s Individual Educational Plan (IEP). The skills taught may be presented in a different order based on individual needs. Students will proceed at their individual rates. This program further reinforces the skills of reading, writing, communicating and decision making and social skill development will be paramount throughout the program. 
• The VOCATIONAL STUDIES PROGRAM, which starts in grade 9, is the extension of the Community Based Program. The focus of this program is to develop employment readiness through the use of functional academics (i.e. consumer math, job applications, interviewing skills, etc.), functional vocational assessments, and appropriate work experiences both in the school community as well as in the local community. These experiences will begin with a classroom-school based learning environment. Next, community based volunteer positions will be developed which will transition to paid positions when appropriate. The long-term goal of this component is to insure that special individual needs are met to promote successful transition as independent contributory citizens within the working community. 
• SPECIALIZED COURSE OFFERINGS are specifically designed to meet the needs of classified students and may include such selections as Transition and Learning Strategies.
• The COMPREHENSIVE BEHAVIOR ANALYTIC PROGRAM (CBAP) is based upon the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). The program bases all its teaching techniques, program protocol, and data collection systems on science and relies on peer reviewed research to further direct program practice.  Applied behavior analysis is a science that uses the basic principles of how humans learn behavior by systematically manipulating variables to increase desired behaviors and decrease maladaptive ones. Some techniques that are used include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, differential reinforcement, extinction, prompting, shaping, and fading. There are hundreds of teaching techniques that are used under the ABA umbrella. Techniques that are used in the Bernards Township classroom include incidental teaching, video modeling, audio modeling, schedule following, scripting, discrete trial instruction, and small group instruction. There are several key points that all these techniques have in common.   All the above teaching techniques utilize objectively defined target behaviors including circumstances under which these behaviors will occur, a criterion for mastery, a teaching procedure, a teaching probe to ensure generalization, strategies for maintaining acquired skills, and an inter-observer agreement measurement.