NHA is Still Accepting Students for the 2020-2021 School Year

With so many schools affected by the coronavirus pandemic and reducing the number of in-person, instructional days, if you are still looking for a 5-day a week school program for your special needs child, New Horizons Academy is STILL accepting new student applications for the 2020-2021 school year for both its Wauseon and Springfield/Holland campuses, as well as for its new Career Center in Wauseon. Call TODAY to begin the enrollment process for August’s classes. School starts on August 19.

We are so excited to be accepting applications for NEW special education students for the 2020-2021 school year for our preschool to high school classes (up to age 21). If you are looking for the right special education placement, a place where your child feels like he or she fits in, consider New Horizons Academy (NHA) in Wauseon or Springfield/Holland.

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 class and program 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/Holland 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)-Based Schools.
Accept both the Autism & Jon Peterson Scholarships as payment in full.
Serve students from over 9 counties and 37 different school districts.

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:

Call the school for more information.
Submit a copy of your child’s IEP & ETR for review.
Schedule a school tour, interview, and student assessment.
If accepted, complete student enrollment paperwork, and provide proof of residency.
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 newhorizonsacademy.org.

NHA Heading Back to School 5 Days a Week Safely!

The health and safety of our students is our top priority! We take their physical and emotional well-being very seriously. During this COVID-19 pandemic, New Horizons Academy (NHA) will do everything in its power to serve your children and keep them safe.

As a regional special needs school, New Horizons Academy is a very special place, serving students from 37 different school districts from over 9 different counties across 3 different campuses. With Ohio’s county-by-county approach to reopening schools, NHA will work with all of Northwest Ohio’s health departments to meet the individual needs of our students under a variety of risk levels.

Since the March 2020 school closure, education has been very challenging for our special needs students. Our students thrive in small groups with individualized, hands-on instruction, which is why many struggled with at-home, online learning. NHA believes that our students’ special education and social needs are best met through face-to-face, hands-on instruction. With our small class sizes, NHA is able to meet the social distancing guidelines to bring our students back to school five days a week from 8:15 a.m.-2:45 p.m. for the 2020-2021 school year!

But returning to school will look a little different than it did before. Thank you to the parents and staff who have shared their questions and concerns with us! Some parents are worried that the state’s guidelines are not stringent enough to protect their children while others are concerned that the health and safety guidelines are too strict for their children and their family. All of us, NHA staff, students, and parents, will need to be flexible and understanding of each other as we return to school. We have tried to take a common sense approach, which incorporates and modifies the federal, state, and local guidelines for our special needs students. Through our summer camps, we were able to pilot this approach and gain a great deal of experience and understanding on successfully implementing these health and safety guidelines.

Returning to School 5 Days a Week!

Our teachers and staff have really missed your children and are so excited about welcoming them back to school!
Our first day of school will be August 19 with our regular school day from 8:15 a.m.-2:45 p.m.
With all of our students on individual education plans (IEPs), NHA will continue to provide personalized, individualized education to meet the diverse learning needs of our students.
Classes will be held in and students spread out across our Wauseon and Springfield/Holland Campuses, Sara’s Garden building, and our new NHA Career Center in Wauseon.

Heading Back to School Safely To protect your children and our medically fragile students, NHA is planning on:

Daily symptom and temperature checks for both staff and students with anyone exhibiting symptoms or with a fever of 100 degrees or greater immediately sent home to isolate,
Social distancing as much as possible,
Teachers rather than students rotating classrooms,
Frequent hand washing and liberal use of hand sanitizer,
Meeting students at the car or lobby door to limit parental exposure,
Utilizing water bottles with snacks and lunch in the classroom,
Sanitizing high-traffic areas throughout the day and intensive building cleanings,
Ongoing staff training.

Face Coverings

All staff will wear face coverings.
Students will be encouraged, but not mandated, to wear face coverings (bandanna, scarf, mask, etc.) as a part of their behavioral plans. We want to help them build up their ability and tolerance in case they need to wear them on the bus, for appointments, during a group outing, etc.
Be imaginative, creative, and fun like wearing a favorite team’s bandanna, playing dress up with a special scarf, playing pretend with a mask, or choosing a favorite ball cap with an attached plastic sheet or shield.

Online Learning

Just being in school or any public area carries some risk of exposure.
For parents who are not ready to send back and/or do not feel comfortable sending their children back to school yet, NHA will offer a full-time, online learning option, which may be accessed through any smart phone or device.

Communications

Keeping parents updated and informed is critical!
NHA will reach parents by posting updates on our web site and Facebook page, texting and/or emailing out critical announcements, making phone calls, sending home letters, leaving notes in students’ communications folders, etc.
Additional information about how day-to-day school operations like pick up, drop off, and classroom schedules may be impacted will be sent out over the summer.
If you have any questions or concerns, please call the school offices at 419-335-7272 (Wauseon) or 567-703-1322 (Springfield/Holland). We would be happy to hear from you!

Visitors

To reduce exposure risk, NHA will try to limit entrance to its buildings.
Parents will be asked to wait in their cars with staff coming out to escort students into and out of the school buildings.
Anyone, entering the buildings, will be asked to wear a face covering and will undergo a symptom and temperature check.

Transportation

Bussing is up to the home school district. If you are planning on your home school district providing transportation for your child to school this year, please contact them right away.
If you are transporting your child to and from school, please look for additional information from NHA on drop off and pick up locations and procedures.

Social, Emotional & Behavioral Support

With children feeling afraid, angry, sad, anxious, and depressed during this pandemic, their negative or disruptive behaviors may increase.
As an Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA)-based school system, NHA’s behavioral specialists are here to help.
This year, NHA will also have a part-time school counselor available for mental health support.

Blended Education

During a coronavirus outbreak which causes the Ohio Department of Health and/or the local health department to classify a county or counties as Level 3-Red, NHA will follow the health department’s guidance.
This may include utilizing remote learning (electronic or online coursework through smart phones or other technology, interactive bins or bags sent home with the students, and/or hands-on activities posted on the web site or Facebook page).
If due to a Level 3-Red alert, students from a specific county are unable to physically attend school or if either of NHA’s Wauseon or Springfield/Holland Campuses are forced to close for an extended period of time, NHA will continue instruction remotely until the health department drops the county down to a Level 2-Orange designation with instruction then physically returning back to the classroom.
During that time, NHA will provide telehealth or online therapy services.
NHA will also give first priority to and will try to offer one-on-one, in-person interventions and therapies to our most needy students, who struggled the most with online learning, when it can be offered and scheduled safely using all of the health guidelines previously discussed.

COVID Exposure

If any student or staff member would test positive for COVID-19, NHA is committed to working with the local health departments and public health officials on contact tracing while still maintaining individual privacy.

Jr. & Sr. High Openings for In-Person Classes

New Horizons Academy is still accepting students in its junior high and high school classes for both our Wauseon and Toledo, Ohio campuses. NHA is proud of its college-prep coursework, has developed a strong partnership with Northwest State Community College for dual-credit College Credit Plus (CCP) classes, and works with its college-bound students to explore scholarships and other educational funding options. Our mission is to provide the highest quality educational and intervention programming available and empower students with disabilities to reach their full potential.

New Horizons Academy plans to hold in-person classes for students, five days a week during the 2020-2021 school year following health department guidelines.

NHA does not solely focus on any one area of development; rather, each developmental domain (social, emotional, communicative, physical, and cognitive) is developed simultaneously throughout the school day. Great importance is placed on setting high goals and expectations and providing students with the appropriate assistance required for them to achieve their individual goals.

Providing an academic curriculum that is challenging is crucial, while simultaneously discovering and exploring ways that our students are best able to access that curriculum.

Program information and benefits:

COST: Tuition and intervention costs are covered by the Autism Scholarship, Jon Peterson Scholarship or through a contract directly with the home school district.
SOCIAL: Students feel welcomed and accepted by students and staff at New Horizons Academy instead of being singled out because of their differences. Many develop friendships for the first time and participate in social activities outside of school.
ACADEMICS: Our licensed teachers, intervention specialists and therapists design each student’s individualized program to maximize their academic success. We build the skills back into every student to help them leap ahead academically! Our evidence based curriculum provides students a strong educational experience. NHA also partners with local universities in offering college level classes.
COMMUNICATION: We have found that consistent communication and parent involvement has been a crucial force in our student’s development, learning, and success at school and in life. This intentional communication helps build on-going, productive, and trusting relationships with the families that we serve.

Come see for yourself why NHA is Northwest Ohio’s home for SPECIAL education!

In-Person Early Learning Openings Available

New Horizons Academy is still accepting students, Preschool through Second Grade, for both its Wauseon and Toledo, Ohio campuses. New Horizons Academy’s Early Intervention Services include; Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Conductive Education and Behavioral Supports, to serve its’ special needs students.

New Horizons Academy plans to hold in-person classes for students, five days a week during the 2020-2021 school year following health department guidelines.

New Horizons Academy’s early learning classes focus on foundational skills necessary for your child’s future education. Your student’s day is filled with a variety of activities that promote skills so that they learn naturally.

Specialized programming allows students to rotate through classes gaining foundational skills. Structured set-up within each room helps develop consistent expectations for your child. In this focused environment they are supported by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) who oversees all aspects of your child’s educational growth and development. Our BCBA also supervises our Ohio licensed staff delivering targeted instruction in Language and Literacy, Foundations in Math, Fine Motor and Handwriting, and Play and Social Skills.

Student Supports with Applied Behavior Focus:

Positive reinforcement for skill acquisition
Visual schedules and visual supports for expectations and routines
Differential reinforcement for appropriate behavior
Modeling skills
Breaking down skills into small steps
Data-driven decision making

Our early learning students’ days are filled with many activities to promote generalization of skills in a natural way. Children receive instruction focused on:

Language and Literacy (Including embedded speech services)
Foundations in Math
Fine Motor and Hand Writing
Play and Social Skills

In these classes children complete activities targeting individual needs with the goal of completing independent activities. The second portion of the school day revisits all of the concepts taught in the morning rotations using a more natural, less intense approach such as during specials, circle time, and group games.

NHA Students Growing, Learning & Having Fun with MobyMax!

Since the coronavirus school closure, New Horizons Academy has been using the comprehensive, individualized, online MobyMax educational program to help serve our kindergarten through eighth graders. MobyMax meets the students’ educational, curriculum, and IEP needs while still being fun, imaginative, and rewarding. MobyMax is proven effective! In a 2018 large-scale research study of 4,000 students, MobyMax helped students learn 53% more than students without it. With just 20 minutes of instruction a day, some students advanced a full grade level. According to Tech & Learning, “The study results offer particular hope for students who are below grade level and need to catch up quickly and effectively. Teachers who need differentiated solutions to help struggling students can also reliably turn to MobyMax for personalized tools like built-in IEP reporting and continuous progress monitoring to find and fix learning gaps.” That’s what the experts say about MobyMax and why NHA selected it.

But let’s hear from one of our students, who earned a MobyMax badge the first week of the school closure. “Thank you, I deserve that, because I have been doing really good in science, CRAZY good!” And he and all of our students have been doing “CRAZY good” on MobyMax. In the first week alone, they studied and worked 16,850 minutes or 280.8 hours. So far, over 95% of our kindergarten through 8th graders have been working hard on their reading, math, science, and social studies. A big thank you goes out to Title I Reading Specialist Ellen Rupp, who has been coordinating and tracking the MobyMax lessons; and most importantly for our students, she has been awarding their badges, extra games, and rewards! If you haven’t already asked your child how they are doing on MobyMax or asked them what badges they have earned, please sit down with them, and watch them rock out and learn on MobyMax this week.

Virtual Learning Presents Unique Challenges & Opportunities

This is clearly not how we wanted to be serving our students. No one ever envisioned that we would be facing such a unique challenge in how we are allowed to interact with each other. Thankfully, our paras, teachers and therapists have been up for the challenge and have enjoyed their opportunities to to get to know our students in whole new ways. They have enjoyed being able to share their own children with their students as they’ve done virtual lessons, read stories and played together through the computer.

We are SO PROUD of the perseverance and communication we’ve seen from our staff. Their passion and commitment to our students and families has been inspiring. We have loved seeing the paraprofessionals stepping in and making videos, running lessons or leading story times. The entire team came together with their concerns and ideas and were able to work as such a close team that it came together as something we hope you can all be proud of. We are so very thankful for this amazing team.

We are SO BLESSED by the support we’ve have from the families we serve. Thank you for working with us in finding creative ways to stay in touch! We know this has been hard on you. Thank you for helping make time for us to have our “silly” video incentives and spend time together with staff. Your commitment to this process has been crucial in helping our students to stay motivated while completing school work from home! It has been so much fun getting to know more about our students and their families (and even pets) through this crazy process.

We are happy to report that Taco (our retired therapy dog) has even been getting the opportunity to reconnect with students too!

Tips for Easing Children’s Anxiety About the Coronavirus

During these difficult times with the coronavirus, closed schools, and the Stay at Home Order, many of our NHA students are having a great deal of anxiety, depression, and emotional concerns.

Here are a few tips for easing your children’ s anxiety about the coronavirus:

Get the facts about the virus, and talk with your children about it.
Ask them what they already know about it and what scares them about it.
Share that it is OK to be anxious and scared but that we are doing everything that we can as a family, school, and country to keep them safe.
Turn off the television and computers, and spend time together. Media overload may add to rather than reduce children’s anxiety.
With school closed, establish a new home routine to help them regain a sense of control (Wake up, get dressed, brush teeth, eat breakfast, go to a designated spot in the house for schoolwork, take a walk, finish schoolwork, eat lunch, etc.). Maintain a consistent bedtime and wake up time.
Eat healthy, and get enough sleep and exercise.
Encourage children to do something they enjoy as a stress break or to cope with an anxiety attack.
Help them to stay connected with their teacher, para, and classmates through google classes, phone calls, and teleconferences through Skype, Zoom, Facetime, or Google Meet, Hangout, or Class.
Help them write letters to family or friends, so they can look forward to getting the mail every day.
Stay positive. Talk about all the things people are doing together to help each other and to stay healthy.

If they are still having trouble talking to you or you don’t know what to say or do, please encourage them to reach out to someone whether that is their mental health counselor through a teleconference, a social worker over the phone, or the Teen Line website.

Please remind your kids that they are not alone!

2019-20 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.

SPONSORSHIP NOTES

Advertisements must be received by April 30, 2020.
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.

NHA Students Take a Bow

NHA Students Take a Bow, Because We’re All Just a Bunch of FLAKES!

Take a bow New Horizons Academy (NHA) students, teachers, and Christmas Musical Coordinator Melissa Valentine! You all put on a dynamite show, and reminded us that we are all unique, have all different talents, gifts, and abilities; and in the end, we’re all just a bunch of (snow)FLAKES.

On December 10 at Pettisville Missionary Church, NHA preschool to high school students shivered, shimmied, sang, and shook their booties for a full house of over 500 parents, friends, family members, and even community well-wishers. They put on FLAKES, NHA’s second annual Christmas musical, directed by music teacher Valentine. During the musical, the North Wind started blowing, and the temperatures started dropping and dropping down to 10 below zero. A big blizzard hit the stage with a cool bunch of jazzy, finger-snappin’ snowflakes. The Flakes and Snirts helped the Littlest Snowflake to see how no two flakes are alike and that we are all special in our own way. This important lesson culminated with the refrain:

You’re one, one in a million! No other ‘neath the sun. You’re one, one in a million! And the reasons you’re special are a million in one. Just one in a million, but you’re a million in one!

Without Melissa, this Christmas miracle would not have been possible. Without all of her hard work, vision, dedication, and creativity, the show would not have gone on. It was her inspiration, her brain child. She found or created the absolute perfect role for each of our students’ abilities and personalities and corralled and coached over 100 of our special needs kids through the entire Christmas show. Melissa was truly our miracle worker!

Just as everyone is special and unique in their own way, so everyone helped make this musical a night to remember from our students to our staff to our family and even community. Thank you NHA and Northwest Ohio for making our students feel like stars (and FLAKES)!

If you missed this special Christmas show, check out all of the musical pictures on the New Horizons Academy’s Facebook page.

NHA Now Accepting Applications for 2020-21

New Horizons Academy is NOW accepting new special education student applications for the 2020-2021 school year for both its Wauseon and Holland/Springfield campuses. 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 2020-21 school year for our preschool to high school classes. If you are looking for the right special education placement, a place where your child feels like he or she fits in, consider New Horizons Academy (NHA).

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 class and program 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 & Holland 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 (Categories 5 & 6) as payment in full.
Serve students from 9 counties and over 20 different school districts.

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:

Call the school for more information.
Submit a copy of your child’s IEP & ETR for review.
Schedule a school tour, interview, and student assessment.
If accepted, complete student enrollment paperwork, and provide proof of residency.
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 newhorizonsacademy.org.