NHA Students Avoid Academic Regression

NHA Students Avoid Academic Regression

NHA’s students’ progress is rosier than most of the country’s with our students avoiding academic regression!

Unlike most public school students from across the United States, New Horizons Academy’s students overall avoided academic regression. Most NHA students either held their own or made slight academic progress throughout last year’s COVID school closure and through this school year’s unpredictability.

According to a recent study by McKinsey & Company, nationally, students started this school year three months behind in math and one and half months behind in reading. With continued uncertainty, online instruction, and quarantine issues, nationally, this regression continued with most students, at best, ending this school year a half a grade behind. By June 2021, McKinsey & Company predict that many students will be over five to nine months behind. They found that “some students didn’t learn any new materials once the pandemic hit and may have even slipped backwards.” Thankfully, that was NOT the case for most NHA students!

Even though many NHA students are academically behind their typical peers because of their disabilities, NHA students did not experience further academic regression this school year. According to the DIBELS Reading Assessment by the Center on Teaching & Learning, all of our first graders saw an increase in letter naming fluency this school year while all first through third grade students either stayed at the same level or saw an increase in their word reading fluency, in connecting letter sounds, and in oral fluency reading with two students learning 55 more new words in just four months. For our fourth through sixth graders, they all either stayed at the same level or saw an increase in their oral fluency reading with an average of 18 more new words in four months.

Nationally for kindergarteners, the pandemic was even harder! Nationally, kindergarten enrollment dropped by 16% with many parents electing to keep their children at home rather than face online instructional learning with preliterate preschoolers. The Ohio Department of Education found this same trend with an 8% drop in kindergarten enrollment this year.

That may have been the state and national trend, but NHA saw a 23% increase in preschool and kindergarten enrollment at its Wauseon Campus from the 2019-2020 school year to the 2020-2021 school year. NHA kindergarteners saw a 12% improvement in letter naming fluency from the beginning of the school year through mid-year. We hope to see this trend continue through May.

Early intervention is the key to special education services, and NHA is proud to say that early intervention works!

NHA COVID Update

NHA COVID Update

New Horizons Academy (NHA) is committed to the health and safety of its students and staff, and we will do everything in our power to keep them safe! That said, as we start the fourth quarter of this school year, we are celebrating our first baby step back to “normal.”

This school year, we have worked extremely hard to minimize in-school coronavirus transmission with face coverings, social distancing, frequent hand washing, hand sanitizing, rigorous cleaning, maintaining classroom pods, having staff rather than students rotate classrooms, and morning temperature checks for staff and students. We have been remarkably successful with just 9 individuals testing positive for COVID-19:

  • 1 student at our Wauseon Campus
  • 1 staff member at our Career Center
  • 2 staff members at our Springfield Campus
  • 5 staff members at our Wauseon Campus

With less community transmission, our COVID cases starting to drop, and staff getting vaccinated, NHA will no longer will be taking morning temperatures for all of its staff and students. This is the first little step back to normal, and a trend that we hope to continue! With just over a year since our forced COVID-19 school closure, it is definitely something worth celebrating!

To continue this trend, NHA will continue its other COVID protocols and will ask you to continue to:

  • Keep your children home when they are sick.
  • Encourage them to wear a mask or face covering.
  • Avoid unnecessary gatherings with people outside of your home.
  • Remind your children to wash their hands often with soap and water.
  • Encourage them to carry and use hand sanitizer.
  • Regularly clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces.

Thank you for helping us to keep our students and staff healthy and safe!

New Horizons Academy is Currently Hiring

New Horizons Academy is Currently Hiring

In order to meet the growing demand for student enrollment, New Horizons Academy at Sara’s Garden is currently seeking to hire additional Special Education Teachers/Intervention Specialists and Paraprofessionals. Positions are available immediately as well as in preparation and planning for the upcoming 2021-22 school year.

Location(s)

  • Wauseon Campus: 220 Lawrence Ave., Wauseon, OH 43567
  • Springfield Campus: 6201 Trust Drive, Holland, OH 43528

Contact Information

NHA Now Accepting Student Applications for 2021-22 School Year

NHA Now Accepting Student Applications for 2021-22 School Year

New Horizons Academy (NHA) is NOW accepting new special education student applications for the 2021-2022 school year for its PK-12 school campuses in Wauseon (620 W. Leggett St.) and Holland (6201 Trust Dr.—just off of Airport Highway in Toledo). NHA is also pleased to announce that it is accepting new student applications for its new Career and Event Center and Coffee Shop (854 S. Shoop Ave., Wauseon), which targets vocational and work skills for young adults through the age of 21. Call TODAY to begin the enrollment process for August’s classes.

We are very excited to be accepting applications for NEW special education students for the 2021-2022 school year for our preschool to high school classes and vocational courses through our new Career Center. If you are looking for the right special education placement, a place where your child feels like he or she fits in, consider NHA in Wauseon, Springfield Township, or through the new Career Center. Currently, NHA has students from 9 different counties and over 20 different school districts.

At NHA, kids come first. We exist for our students; our students do not exist for the school. Students don’t have to fit into the classes. The classes and programs are made to meet the individual student’s needs. Please visit us, and see if we are the right fit for your special needs student.

NHA’s Wauseon & Springfield Township Campuses:

  • Are regional preschool to 12th grade special education schools.
  • Have less than a 1:2—staff to student ratio.
  • Specialize in individualized, personalized education.
  • Provide strong academics, community involvement, life skills classes, vocational skills, work site placements, and job coaches.
  • Offer early intervention, conductive education (CE), sensory integration, occupational therapy, speech/language pathology & music instruction.
  • Participate in the College Credit Plus (CCP) Program.
  • Are Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) Schools.
  • Accept both the Autism & Jon Peterson Scholarships as payment in full.
  • Serve students from 9 counties and over 20 different school districts.

NHA’s NEW Career Center for Special Education Students:

  • Prides itself on small classrooms (No more than 5 students in a room)
  • Works with young adults up to age 21
  • Targets vocational and work skills
  • Provides on-site job coaching
  • Will soon have students working in its Special Grounds Coffee Shop
  • Helps transition high school students into community programs for youth and jobs for young adults

Our mission is to help your child achieve the greatest independence possible through early intervention programs, classes, community activities, life skills training, vocational placements, and job coaching.

Steps to Enrollment:

  1. Call the school for more information.
  2. Submit a copy of your child’s IEP & ETR for review.
  3. Schedule a school tour, interview, and student assessment.
  4. If accepted, complete student enrollment paperwork, and provide proof of residency.
  5. Complete and accept the Autism or Jon Peterson Scholarship.

For more information on New Horizons Academy or to schedule a tour, call Admissions Coordinator Ronda Rupp at 419-335-7272, email [email protected], or log onto the school website at newhorizonsacademy.org.

NHA COVID Update

NHA COVID Update

New Horizons Academy (NHA) is committed to the safety and health of our students and staff, and we will do everything in our power to keep them safe! As the number of Northwest Ohio COVID-19 cases grow, NHA has worked extremely hard to minimize in-school exposure to the coronavirus. To date, we have had only:

  • 1 student at our Wauseon Campus test positive
  • 1 staff member at our Career Center test positive
  • 1 staff member at our Springfield Campus test positive
  • 5 staff members at our Wauseon Campus test positive

Thank you for helping to keep our students and staff healthy and safe from the coronavirus! Please continue to:

  • Keep your children home when they are sick.
  • Encourage them to wear a mask or face covering.
  • Avoid unnecessary gatherings with people outside of your home.
  • Remind your children to wash their hands often with soap and water.
  • Encourage them to carry and use hand sanitizer.
  • Regularly clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces.

Please be aware that the Ohio Department of Health has updated its COVID-19 quarantine guidelines. Please take a few minutes to review them, so you are aware how they may affect NHA school operations.


For more information on the new quarantine guidelines, call the Ohio Department of Health Hotline at 1-833-4-ASK-ODH (1-833-427-5634) or visit coronavirus.ohio.gov. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. If you or a loved one are experiencing anxiety related to the coronavirus pandemic, help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call the COVID-19 Care Line at 1-800-720-9616.

2020-21 NHA Yearbook Sponsorship

2020-21 NHA Yearbook Sponsorship

We are so thankful to our sponsors for making this past year’s yearbook project possible.

Our goal is to once again provide our students and their parents with this very special memento. We hope to raise funds through sponsors in order to keep the costs of the yearbooks as low as possible, so that more students and their families will be able to afford one.

We invite you to consider being a sponsor of this very special project!

We also gladly accept general donations for those not interested in being recognized as sponsors.

COST: $150.00

This level of sponsorship includes a 3.75″ x 4.25″ (approx.) color advertisement in the yearbook, recognition on our website and recognition on social media with a link to your business’ social media page or website.

COST: $90.00

This level of sponsorship includes a business card sized color advertisement in the yearbook and recognition on our website.

COST: $30.00

This level of sponsorship includes your business or name listed in the yearbook and website.

  • Advertisements are requested to be received by April 30, 2021.
  • Ads can be emailed in .jpg/.jpeg format to [email protected].
  • Ads may be dropped off at Sara’s Garden or New Horizons Academy.

Sara’s Garden is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. To claim a donation as a deduction on your U.S. taxes, please keep your email donation receipt as your official record. We’ll send it to you upon successful completion of your donation.

Congratulations 2020 NHA Graduates!

Congratulations 2020 NHA Graduates!

We are so pleased and proud to congratulate our 2020 New Horizons Academy (NHA) graduates! It was a long time in coming, but you DID it!

Congratulations to—

  • Beaux Barrett
  • Haley Munday
  • Ellisha Rodriguez
  • Zoe Siefker
  • Luke Zachrich

Even with the COVID school closing, social distancing, masks, and small group graduations, NOTHING could stop our 2020 graduates! The first graduation ceremony honored Haley Munday and her family in May at NHA’s Hope Center with the last held October 3, 2020 at the new Career Center for Luke Zachrich and Beaux Barrett. This was a very memorable graduation season with the MOST graduates NHA has ever had in a single graduating class and hopefully, the most graduation ceremonies that we will ever hold in a single year.

For many our graduates and their parents, this graduation was truly a dream come true! Thank you to all of our graduates’ parents for never giving up on their children, for sticking with it, and for choosing New Horizons Academy.

For more information on our regional special needs schools in Wauseon and Springfield Township, please call Admissions Coordinator Ronda Rupp at 419-335-7272 or email her at [email protected].

2020 Classroom Toy Drive

2020 Classroom Toy Drive

We’re asked all the time for simple ways that families can help support our students and their classrooms.

One such option that is often overlooked, yet incredibly important, is the need for sensory toys that can be used to support the interventions and therapies being provided.

Every child benefits from having toys to play with. Toys help a child develop motor skills, creativity, social skills and other things they will need for growth and development. But for a child with autism or other special needs, toys play an even more vital role. Sensory toys help children with special needs gain a measure of control over their environment. Sensory toys for autism development are important because they help the child to learn problem-solving skills, something that many children with autism struggle to do. What may look like simple play with sensory toys for children with special needs is actually the process of education in action.

Having the right kind of sensory toys for autism education is very important to the development of the children in the classroom. Millions of children are affected by some kind of special need or disability that affects their ability to learn in a conventional way. Because of that, NHA incorporates various sensory related toys into our classrooms for special needs students.

We are holding a classroom toy drive to help collect toys so our kids can play! You can help make Christmas a little merrier for our kids and their classrooms.

BUY A TOY ~ SPONSOR A CLASSROOM
BUY A TOY ~ SPONSOR A CLASSROOM

Thank you so much for making a difference at our school.

Merry Christmas!

Students and Teachers at New Horizons Academy

NHA COVID Update

NHA COVID Update

New Horizons Academy (NHA) is committed to the safety and health of our students and staff, and we will do everything in our power to keep them safe! Unfortunately, not everything is within our control. As coronavirus cases continue to grow in Northwest Ohio, NHA had to confront its first positive COVID-19 result.

One of our staff members in Wauseon tested positive on October 29. Students and staff, who came into contact with that staff member, were quickly sent home from school, and cleaning and disinfecting were promptly begun. We are working closely with our local health department, and anyone identified as a close contact will be notified by them as a part of COVID-19 contact tracing.

How You Can Help
Be proactive about reducing the number of interactions that students and staff have with one another by practicing social distancing (staying at least 6 feet apart) to limit the spread of COVID-19. In addition to physical distancing, these important tools help to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

  • Stay home when you are sick.
  • Wear a mask or face covering while in public places or if people who don’t live with you must visit your home.
  • Avoid unnecessary gatherings with people who don’t live in your home.
  • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Sing the Happy Birthday song twice to help know when it has been 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based hand sanitizers that contain at least 60% alcohol.
  • Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue, and then dispose of the tissue and wash your hands immediately. If you do not have a tissue, use your sleeve, not your hands, to cover coughs and sneezes. If you are experiencing cough or congestion, consider staying home and seeking medical care.
  • Regularly clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends cleaning of frequently touched surfaces with household cleaners and EPA-registered disinfectants that are appropriate for the surface, following label instructions. A simple bleach solution may also be utilized.

For answers to your COVID-19 questions, call 1-833-4-ASK-ODH (1-833-427-5634) or visit coronavirus.ohio.gov.

Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. If you or a loved one are experiencing anxiety related to the coronavirus pandemic, help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call the COVID-19 CareLine at 1-800-720-9616.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to call the school office at 419-335-7272. Thank you for helping to keep people safe and to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community and school.

Protect Parent Rights For Students With Disabilities!

Protect Parent Rights For Students With Disabilities!

Parents,

Help School Choice Ohio and the Ohio Scholarship Providers Association protect your rights!

A proposed rule change being considered by the Ohio Department of Education in the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) may allow school districts to make a placement change for a child with disabilities without obtaining parental consent. The rule change needs to be revised to prevent this from happening without proper safeguards.

Your voice needs to be heard. Please download and use the template letter below to express your opposition. You simply need to sign your name and email it to [email protected] or edit the letter as you see fit and then send it.

Opposition Letter: DOWNLOAD HERE

The deadline for comments is July 31st so please don’t delay!

More info can be found at this link: http://education.ohio.gov/About/Ohio-Administrative-Code-OAC-Rule-Comments