the graham school brochure
DESCRIPTION
Learn more about The Graham School, our residential campus and school for students in grades K-12, located at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.TRANSCRIPT
The Graham School A Partnership of Graham Windham and the Greenburgh-Graham Union Free School District
Our Graham School students achieve academic success and social and emotional
growth in a nurturing and highly-structured learning environment.
Who We Are ... The Graham School is a co-educational therapeutic day and boarding
school located on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River in Hastings-on-Hudson,
New York. It is licensed by New York State’s Department of Education and
Office of Children and Family Services and accredited by the Middle States
Association of Colleges and Schools and the Council of Accreditation.
The school is designed to meet the needs of boys and girls ages 5 to 21 who
have been referred by New York City metro area public school districts and
by New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services for residential
education and treatment services and, when needed, family permanency
planning services. We accept children and adolescents with learning
disabilities, emotional and behavioral challenges and disrupted family life.
Our Values ...
SAFETY & ORDER
Physical safety and emotional security are essential
conditions for a child’s health, education and
development. Our first consideration is always student
safety and ensuring an orderly and therapeutic
campus environment.
RELATIONSHIPS
We use healthy, authentic and humanizing student/staff
relationships to promote education, healing, growth and
well-being.
GOOD CARE We care about our students. Our care is demonstrated
day-in and day-out by our words, our deeds and by
addressing the true needs and challenges of those we
serve.
FAMILY
We believe that home and family are our students’
greatest natural resource. It anchors them. It defines
them. It makes them whole. We work in full and active
partnership with our students’ families in the best interests
of their child.
… and Beliefs
EDUCATION
Education is a primary force for individual and collective
progress and achievement in American society. We are
committed to providing our students with a strong, rich and
expansive year-round academic program, carefully
calibrated to the individual needs of each and every student.
STRENGTH-BASED SERVICES
All the students we serve bring with them unique talents, skills
and personal narratives, in addition to specific unmet
needs. We are committed to a strength-based approach to
practice, capitalizing on existing competencies, talents and
interests to shape and implement individual education
and treatment plans.
HIGH STANDARDS
We believe in our students, in their essential goodness and
capacity to cope, heal, learn, grow and succeed. Therefore, we
set their challenge bar high, consistent with the upper limits of
their promise and potential.
RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES
The “rights” of our students and families are important to us and
honored in our work. At the same time, progress can be
expected only when those rights are accompanied by an
active acceptance of responsibilities. All our students and
families have a voice at The Graham School and share with us
responsibility for their success.
Each student’s program is specifically tailored to their individual needs and goals.
The Program Located on a beautiful 30-acre campus, The Graham School serves 300
resident and day students with a myriad of strengths and moderate-to-severe
learning, emotional and behavioral challenges. The facilities include an
elementary, middle and high school in two modern school buildings, 12 resident
cottages, a large and historic administrative building, a fully equipped health
center, a family center, two gymnasiums and an outdoor swimming pool.
The program is a collaboration between Graham Windham, the
nation’s longest serving child welfare agency and the Greenburgh-Graham
Union Free School district, which was established in 1967 to serve the residential
children of Graham Windham. The agency and school take special pride in a
close working relationship which enables the program to provide fully
integrated academic, clinical, youth development and enrichment services in
a nurturing, highly structured and individualized learning environment, staffed
by experienced teachers, clinicians, social workers and youth counselors.
What makes The Graham School Unique?
The Graham School is a learning community where staff inspire students, students inspire staff and lives are transformed.
THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
The Greenburgh-Graham elementary, middle and high schools offer a wide range of
educational and enrichment programs. Small class size, with a ratio of one teacher and two
support staff for every eight students, ensures personal attention for all. We assess the learning
strengths and needs of each student upon arrival and provide instructional strategies and
accommodations to support students with varying ability levels. Curriculum offerings meet all
the requirements of the New York State Department of Education.
RESEARCH-BASED READING INSTRUCTION
The Graham School uses two evidence-based instructional models to teach reading. The first is
Language-Based Reading Instruction. This is an intervention program for learning disabled and
struggling readers. It focuses on word decoding, spelling and grammar. The second model is
called Balanced Literacy. This is an integrated approach that incorporates the use of multiple
strategies to enhance reading, writing, thinking, speaking and listening skills. Student
engagement and participation, and the generation of authentic student work, are the keys to
success. All our reading programs are grounded in ongoing student assessment based on
quarterly evaluation. Instruction is aligned with regents standards and is differentiated from the
remedial level to the honors level.
In the Classroom Direct skills instruction within a small class setting helps students to reach their full potential.
MATH ACADEMY
Systematic and web-based intervention programs
that build foundational mathematical skills.
PROJECT BASED LEARNING
Provides students with complex tasks involving
higher problem solving, decision making,
investigative skills and reflection.
CREDIT RECOVERY & GED PROGRAMS
Alternative programs for high school students who
are credit deficient.
ELECTIVE CLASSES
Visual and media arts, music, drama and writing
are examples of high-interest options for students.
TUTORING AND HONORS LEVEL CLASSES
Additional support and enrichment geared to
student need and performance.
COLLEGE CAFÉ
Staff work with students to prepare college
applications.
SAT PREPARATION
Academic decathlons to encourage studying
and preparing for college entrance exams.
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION Provides students with different avenues to
acquire knowledge.
Our classrooms are staffed with
trained, certificated and deeply
committed educators who know
their way around special needs
students, challenging behaviors,
cutting-edge pedagogy and New
York State standards. They
prepare each student to meet
with success on state assessments
and go far beyond the standards
to enrich our students’ learning
experience and address their
personal interests. They know how
to help our students find the best
in themselves.
Faculty and Staff
Nothing impacts the academic achievements of our students as much as the quality of the teaching they receive.
Graham’s highly trained faculty refuse to ratify failure. They zealously draw students
and their families into the education process and direct their focus laser-like on
enhancing academic achievement.
A Restorative Environment
On Campus, all the forces of order, education and therapy are allied in a powerful circle of support.
THE THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY
The Graham School is an intentional community. We conduct our day-to day-activities through strong social
contracts that explicitly emphasize program values and the responsibility of all staff to engage students in a
sustained, disciplined effort to succeed in school and in life. This web of caring relationships creates a sense of
belonging and an atmosphere of trust and security. It promotes pro-social and pro-self behavior and a fervent
belief that growth, development and success is not only possible but firmly within each student’s grasp.
CLINICAL EXPERTISE
All students are assigned their own clinician. Individual psychotherapy and pharmacological therapy is
provided when needed and approved by the student and/or family, who we involve in all clinical planning
and decision-making. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) is available
to help students identify and cope with specific concerns. Students participate in weekly peer group meetings
and themed group sessions such as Girls Circle, norms training and transition planning. Our clinical staff
is comprised of child psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and licensed clinical
social workers.
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
A modern Health Center, staffed by a pediatrician, nurse practitioner, RNs and LPNs, provides primary health
care to all resident students and, on an as-needed basis, to day students. Comprehensive, integrated health
care services include initial health evaluation with follow-up assessments, prevention and health promotion
activities, and care for common illnesses, injuries and medical complaints. More specialized services are
provided by a network of carefully selected specialists. Nearby St. John’s Hospital provides emergency care.
Dental care is provided by Westchester County’s Mobile Dental Van.
Family Support
Families are respected and involved. FAMILY-CENTERED CARE
Families play a primary decision-making role in planning for the care and the education of their
children. This involvement includes deciding the appropriate mix of supports and services, goal setting,
designing and implementing their child’s individual education and treatment plans and monitoring the
outcomes of those plans. Family counseling, support groups and parental skill building in key areas
such as parent-child communication, developmental expectancies, guidance and discipline and
problem solving are also offered.
INTENSIVE FAMILY WORK
Sometimes families need assistance in providing a safe home environment for their children. When this
is the case, we work with urgency to help the family create and enact a solution-oriented plan to
restore safe and healthy family functioning. If these efforts do not succeed, we work with the student to
consider other family options, including being welcomed into a new, loving and permanent family. Our
cadre of highly professional case planners and social workers are trained in Solutions-Based Casework,
a family-centered, evidence-based casework practice model that helps families build on existing
strengths to solve issues which interfere with the safety and well-being of the home.
TRANSITIONING
One of our key challenges is to help students maintain their behavioral and educational gains after
they leave Graham, and to continue their growth, development and education going
forward. Post-graduate/discharge planning starts on day one of admission and continues
throughout the student’s enrollment at The Graham School. Student success is measured not only by
how well they do while here, but also how well they do after they leave.
The Day has 24 Hours
AFTERSCHOOL AND EVENING ACTIVITIES
A rich program of skill mastery, educational
supports, recreation and cultural activities helps
students develop strong, positive and healthy
functional identities. Activities include life skills
workshops, tutoring and homework help,
intramural sports, crafts and performing arts,
BENGALS (student council and leadership
training), ECAD (service dogs training) and field
trips to museums, concerts and parks. With over
90 campus jobs, our salaried student employment
program is designed to help students develop job
skills and positive workplace behaviors.
COTTAGE LIFE
The cottage is the resident student’s “home
base”. It is where they sleep, eat (when not
using the central dining room), attend to
personal hygiene, study, recreate and
relax. Most cottages house 12 – 14 students,
usually 2 per bedroom. Cottages are staffed by
experienced Youth Counselors who are
carefully recruited and trained to provide
personalized care, emotional support, skill
mastery, behavioral support and recreational
activities.
Editor-In-Chief: Poul Jensen
Managing Editor: Sandra April
Designer: Mayra Pacheco
Photo Credits: Julie Beers and Jeffrey Fleisig
The Graham School
One South Broadway
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York 10706
www.graham-windham.org
www.greenburgh-graham.org
Editor-In-Chief: Poul Jensen
Managing Editor: Sandra April
Designer: Mayra Pacheco
Photo Credits: Julie Beers and Jeffrey Fleisig
For more information, please call us at
914-478-1100 Ext 235
914-478-1106 Ext 427