Mission
iHOPE provides comprehensive services for students with a variety of diagnoses including traumatic brain injuries, acquired brain injuries, and other brain-based disorders. Our students receive academic instruction with appropriate modification and adaptation, as well as therapeutic services, based upon a collaborative, researched-based model that integrates current technology. iHOPE is committed to learners with complex needs and to their social, emotional, adaptive, and educational advancement. Accessibility and integration into the larger community are at the core of our belief system.
iHOPE’s Core Values
Leadership
We are committed to creating systemic change in the way students with brain injuries and other brain-based disorders are educated.
Family Inclusion
We always place the interests of the student with a brain injury and their family at the center of our decisions.
Excellence
We aspire to the highest standard of excellence by implementing best practices and drawing on evidence-based research in the delivery of technically competent care.
Professional Development
We foster an environment of rigor and respect in which our staff continue developing well into their careers to attract and retain the very best practitioners with expertise in pediatric brain injury.
Dissemination
We support active dissemination of applied research, translating scientific knowledge into effective hands-on instructional methodologies and approaches.
Compassion
We focus on meaningful outcomes for our students, attained within a context of kindness, optimism, and celebration of growth and skill mastery.
Johny Hossain
Jabir’s Father
iHOPE is a great school. We are really really lucky that we found this school for my son. He is doing so great, better than I ever expected and I'm 100% sure that he is going to do even better because he has a great, dedicated team at iHOPE.
Education
iHOPE’s educational program focuses on the development of academic, cognitive, and social skills and is designed to address the specific needs and capabilities of each student. A 12-Month academic calendar ensures continuous teaching and learning with full collaboration between teachers, related service providers and paraprofessionals. Assistive technology and adapted educational materials are integrated into a rich curriculum which includes literacy, math, science, social studies and the arts.
Services Include:
Assistive Technology: Each student is evaluated and taught how to use individualized AT to help them actively participate in everyday tasks.
Aquatic Therapy: Licensed therapists work with students in a heated pool to perform activities which provide ambulatory and non-ambulatory students the ability to exercise in the water in a manner that doesn't stress their joints and muscles, leading to overall functional improvement.
Behavioral Support Services: A Board-Certified Behavior Analyst assesses, trains, and provides guidance in intervention for students who experience challenging and complex behaviors.
Health and Nursing Services: The School Nurse provides quality health services to iHOPE students with complex health and nursing needs.
Hearing Education Services: Hearing Education Teachers incorporate sign language to meet the needs of students who are deaf, have hearing challenges, or who have difficulty processing and understanding spoken language.
Music and Art Classes: A focus on the arts led by specially trained instructors, help strengthen students’ auditory, visual/spatial, and tactile awareness.
Occupational Therapy: Licensed Occupational Therapists focus on improving student participation and engagement through direct intervention, provision of adaptive equipment, and modification of the environment.
Physical Therapy: Licensed Physical Therapists take a hands-on approach to increase mobility, postural control, balance, coordination, and to promote proper positioning to help the students improve their physical participation in accessing their educational environment.
Social Work Services: Licensed Clinical Social Workers provide support, as well as individual and group counseling to families.
Speech and Language Therapy: Licensed and Trained Speech Language Pathologists provide dynamic speech and feeding therapy with a specialized focus on enhancing every student’s communication skills through technology, motor speech techniques, creativity, and dedication so that each student can engage and participate in their school and home communities.
Vision Education Services: Teachers of the Visually Impaired adapt materials and the environment and offer individualized visual training for students who are diagnosed with Visual Impairments, including both Ocular and Cortical Visual Impairments.
Vocational Education: Students over the age of 14 are trained in self-awareness, career exploration, life skills and self-direction.
Charlise Ellis
X'von's Parent
iHOPE helped X'von to lower his frustration level by introducing him to sign language. He picked it up so fast and became in love with it to the point he was creating his own sign to communicate. iHOPE's speech department helped him get his first communication device that helped him build his vocabulary and helped him develop another way to communicate.