Emotional Support

School-Based Classes

This program is for students who have been identified with an emotional disturbance and therefore have behaviors that impede their learning. Although they do exhibit inappropriate behaviors during the school day, they are able to function in a public school building and in most cases are included in general education classes.

School-based emotional support classes include:

• Elementary classes
• Therapeutic Emotional Support classes – These middle and high school classes have a strong focus on the mental health of the students and provide daily groups run by the school psychologist or the school social worker.

Center-Based Programs

IU13 provides a variety of center-based programs for students with emotional support needs:

• For students with more intensive or severe behaviors: IU13 offers center-based programs for students K-6 (Emotional Support at Central Education Center (CEC) – view program flyer here) and Grades 6-12 (Community Schools Programs – view program flyer here). The students in these programs have been placed in center-based locations due to severe/disruptive behaviors, which are no longer appropriate for instruction in a school-based emotional support class setting. The goal of the programs is to provide intensive supports that enable and foster shaped behavior such that each student earns the opportunity to return to a school-based emotional support class or least restrictive environment.
• For students with severe behaviors and moderate to low cognitive abilities: IU13 serves students with a diagnosis of emotional disturbance as well as an additional special need, i.e. Intellectual Disability, Learning Disability, Autism, or Deaf and Hard of Hearing, at our Integrated Emotional Support Program at the Central Education Center (view program flyer here). Some of these students also have speech, occupational, or physical therapy. We have a low student to staff ratio due to the behavioral and cognitive needs of the students.
• For students with severe mental health issues and emotional disturbance: The Mulberry Street program serves upper elementary to 9th grade students who are referred to Catholic Charities by the local school district and go through a mental health screening prior to being accepted into the program. The students have severe mental health issues along with being emotionally disturbed. IU13 provides the academics while Catholic Charities provides the counseling. There is a strong counseling and family component to this program.
• For secondary school-age students with a mental health diagnosis: The School-Based Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP), a partnership of Community Services Group (CSG) and IU13, is designed to support both the significant emotional/mental health needs and education needs of students. It serves students ages 13 to 21 years old whose needs cannot be met in a traditional classroom setting or by a lower level of care. This weekday program provides a blend of therapeutic and educational services provided to students in a group setting and includes a multi-disciplinary team approach to treatment. Learn more about PHP here, or download the School-Based Partial Hospitalization Program flyer here.

Support/Related Services

IU13 provides a range of support services for children with disabilities to meet their needs as identified in their individualized education programs (IEP). Learn more here.