Here’s what to expect during the application process:

Our admissions process is designed to help us understand the whole child, and the ways in which their current cognitive, social, emotional, executive function, regulatory and neurophysiological skills are influencing their learning and life-lived experiences.

Here is an overview of our admissions process:

1 - Create your account

You will be asked to fill in basic demographic information in order to create an account in our online application system. Once you do, you will receive a unique link by email that you can use to access our online application system. This link will allow you to save your work on each page as you complete your form. Click here to create your account.

2 - Complete our online application and upload your child’s assessments and evaluations, along with a $125 application fee

Each family must submit a Parent Application helping to give us a “Mom and Dad’s eye view” into how their child travels through the world.

At the conclusion of the form, we ask each family to upload all of the evaluations that they currently have for a child, across psycho-educational and therapeutic realms. We do not rely on full scale IQ, prior identification as gifted or other measures that are influenced by processing speed and/or working memory, and indeed we admit students who are challenged in those areas. This file is reviewed by our clinical team and Head of School, under the direction of our Director of Programs, Dr. Steven Mattis: an internationally-recognized neuropsychologist and licensed psychologist. Together, we examine the specific data in each child’s neuropsychological and neurophysiological profiles—not the labels they’ve been given along the way. You will also be asked to submit a $125 application fee; this fee helps us to partially defray the costs of our clinical team’s application review.

Families are not required to provide teacher recommendations or to alert their current educational setting that they intend to apply.

3 -  Schedule a call with our Head of School

Once you have submitted your materials, you will be invited to schedule a call with our Head of School to discuss your child’s journey and assess whether your child may be a good fit for our program. Families hoping to learn more about our program prior to submitting an application are encouraged to attend one of our information sessions; you can view the calendar of admissions events here.

4 - Admissions review

Members of our clinical team and our Head of School review every application and if we feel that your child’s profile may be a good fit then we will invite you and your child to an interview. If there are areas where we feel there are significant unanswered questions, we may request a release to speak with your current school and/or community-based providers working with your child, or we may recommend that you secure additional evaluations in particular areas in order to aid our interview decision.

5 - On-site interviews for you and your child

If our team feels that you child may be a good fit for our program, you and your child will be invited to a half-day, on-site interview. Our interview days are designed to give us an opportunity to make sure we understand your child’s programming needs, and to begin building our relationship with you and your child. Over the course of a half day together, each child will meet our Head of School, our Director of Programs/neuropsychologist, our occupational therapist and one or more of our academic instructors. They will also participate in a structured social activity with a peer who is currently enrolled in the program.

While your child meets with our team, at least one parent will meet with each of our neuropsychologist and our Head of School. These are important opportunities for us to hear directly from you what you think would make the biggest positive difference for your child, to learn about their experiences in prior school environments and also to answer any questions you may have.

Please reassure your child that ours is a child-first community. They should come wearing something they find comfortable for getting up and moving.

6 - Admissions decision

Admissions decisions are made based on a variety of factors, including the suitability of our program for meeting your child’s needs and balancing an appropriate mix of needs, ages and abilities within our program. Consideration may be given to the suitability of alternative educational programs within the community, as we are aware that we are the first program to meet the needs of children having certain educational and physiological profiles.

Applications for immediate admissions will be prioritized, however we will do our best to get back to all applicants as quickly as possible after your child’s Interview Day. If we feel that your child is a good fit for our program but do not have a spot or feel that we don’t have the right mix of students for them at the present time, we will place your child on a waitlist and will update you as soon as possible.