The Clear View School offers emotionally disturbed children and their families a deeply supportive therapeutic experience within a secure and nurturing environment, a therapeutic milieu. Here, children are given behavioral guidance and loving support from a dedicated and highly qualified staff of therapists and special education teachers.

Upon admission to Clear View, a comprehensive plan is developed for each child that addresses individual mental health treatment needs and therapeutic teaching strategies. Each child and family is given a therapist, their therapist, who will work with them during their entire time at Clear View. Thus parents find they are not alone in dealing with the uncertainties and perplexing problems presented by living with a child who is emotionally disturbed and children experience enhanced family relationships in a strengthened home environment.

Individual and family sessions, therapists working hand in hand with teachers, intervention throughout the program day as needed, telephone availability for difficulties at home and continuity throughout the duration of a child’s stay provide comprehensive emotional treatment and support in the context of a school environment. Classroom programs address the learning difficulties andbehavioral issues that develop out of a child’s experience of such emotional states as severe anxiety, depression, social disorientation, extreme anger or disordered thinking.

Children who have failed in their previous school programs are not asked to demonstrate immediate academic achievement, but are slowly reengaged in a process of successful learning once a  basis of confident attachment has been established with trusted adults. Special education instruction follows the New York State Education Department Standards for all students as their mental health needs and cognitive abilities allow. Students have access to the appropriate New York State Assessments as well as Regents Examinations and Regents Competency Tests at the high school level. Within the Clear View program they may earn high school credits and receive a diploma from their local public high school.

Speech and language development services are provided to children who require them. Life skills and prevocational studies are offered to all students at appropriate levels. Learning to set a table, to develop work skills in the School’s professional kitchen or on-campus warehouse, or to work competently for an off-campus employer are included in the Clear View program as needed, allowing students to become prepared for work in the community.