Challenge Academy’s philosophy is that our school was created to serve others, most specifically students, parents and the community. When students enter Challenge Academy, we take the whole family approach and embrace each parent or guardian as partners.  From the development of the Individual Service Plan to the twice daily door to door transportation to phone conferencing, multidisciplinary meeting and home visits, parents have the opportunity to be involved in every step of their child’s schooling.

The second cord is the services that we provide within the school.  Every morning students participate in our Trenches Program, a morning meeting that emphasizes social skills training and character education coupled with light physical exercises.  Trenches provides the staff with the opportunity to observe each student and to address any issues prior to class instruction.  We have found that providing counseling before issues erupt increases the students’ likelihood of thriving in the classroom.  Each student is assigned a Behavior Coordinator and together, they work on issues that are preventing the student from being successful.  A leveled behavior modification program encourages the students to earn rewards for attendance, assisting others, appropriate behaviors and positive attitudes.  Students who consistently exhibit behaviors that are not conducive to their learning are placed in PUSH, a classroom that emphasizes therapy, social skills and character building activities.

The third cord is extensive networking, searching for and partnering students and their families with community based services.  Because of our strong relationships with students and their families, we are cognizant of varying needs within each household.  Services could include but are not limited to medical, dental, various therapies, food banks, clothing, housing and utility assistance.