Renaissance School - St. Mary's Health System

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Info For Patients & Families

Other Information:

Renaissance School

(207)777-4175

The Renaissance School is a department of St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center’s Behavioral Medicine Division, and is a licensed, special purpose school designed to meet the educational and behavioral needs of children with the educational diagnosis of Emotional Disability (ED). Additionally, criteria for admission to The Renaissance School require at least one diagnosis on Axis 1 of the DSM 4, which is viewed as being a significant contributor the child’s behavioral impairment.

Children in attendance at our school receive a broad variety of special education and behavioral services, including child psychiatry, social work, behavioral nursing, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and psychological services. All children admitted to the school are provided a comprehensive assessment as part of the admission process, which is updated through the child’s enrollment.

Psychiatry provides oversight of the therapeutic team, as well as medical and psychiatric assessment, management and follow-up.

Social Work provides comprehensive case management, on-going student and family assessment, education and therapy (including the identification and facilitation of needed services not provided by the school)

Special Education provides individualized services to meet the identified educational needs of the child (including a highly structured environment)

Behavioral Nursing assists with ongoing assessment of medical efficacy, medication administration and compliance checks, medication and illness education to families, crisis intervention and provides traditional school nursing services, including health assessments and first aid.

Psychology provides testing and assistance in developing and troubleshooting, behavioral plans.

Occupational, Speech, and Recreation Therapies are provided by credentialed professionals.

Additionally, we are able to access all diagnostic and other ancillary services at St. Mary’s very easily. The program is quite comprehensive, and can adapt to meet the needs of a broad variety of children and behaviors.

The school is accessed through the Pupil Evaluation Team process at a local sending school district. A further assessment by Renaissance School Psychiatry, Special Education, and Social Work is completed to determine appropriateness, and (if yes, and space is available), the child is accepted into the program.

Duration of stay is individualized.

For Renaissance School Admission Criteria, please click here .

For more information or to discuss a placement, please call (207)777-4175.

Renaissance School Admission Criteria

It is the policy of The Renaissance School to admit students whose behavior precludes or severely hinders their ability to receive educational services in their public school setting. Students eligible for admission are those children (ages 5-12 in grades K-6) with an educational impairment secondary to a psychiatric condition (per DSM 4) who can emotionally, behaviorally, and physically participate in the program, and can be expected to profit from the educational and therapeutic services offered.

Referrals

1. Referral to The Renaissance School will be through the Pupil Evaluation Team (PET) process conducted at a referring school.

The PET will determine the need for referral due to inability to be educated in a less restrictive school setting. The IEP (Individual Education Plan) shall determine that the child has an emotional disability (ED) and requires a day treatment level self-contained classroom setting.
The PET will submit referral information to The Renaissance School’s Advisory Board for admission consideration.
The Renaissance School Advisory Board will have the option to observe the student in the referring school setting prior to granting admission approval.
The PET will determine the length of placement at The Renaissance School.

2. Students referred to The Renaissance School will have the ability to learn to respond to limit setting.

3. Higher functioning developmentally disabled students will be considered if there is also an associated behavioral issue. The behavioral needs will determine the admission approval.

4. Parents/legal guardian must be willing to participate in the treatment and educational program.

5. Records from the referring school shall be submitted to The Renaissance School prior to the student’s first day of attendance.

6. Students referred to The Renaissance School are protected by federal and state regulations, including the Family Education Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Maine Special Education Regulations (MSER) Chapter 101, effective 10/31/95; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

B. DEFERRALS

students who will not be considered for admission to The Renaissance School will include:

those whose parents/legal guardian refuse to participate in the program;
those who cannot communicate or understand;
those whose sole disability is mental retardation;
those whose sole disability is a visual or hearing impairment;
those whose sole disability is blindness or deafness; or
those whose sole disability is a learning disability.

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