The Therapeutic School serves as an extention of the school district
services for students, aged 6 to 14, who are severely emotionally
disturbed. The Students have demonstrated an adverse impact of their
emotions upon academic and personal performance. The key to student growth
and development is the enhancement of self esteem. This is accomplished
through guided and structured experiences that challenge students to
explore, recognize and express their feelings in socially appropriate
ways.

Under a cooperative regional agreement, this Program serves the school
districts within the SPEED, ECHO, Southwest and Eisenhower Joint
Agreements. It is housed at St. Gerard's in Markham. The teachers are
Illinois certified in the area of social emotional disabilities and work
with an interdiciplinary team consisting of behavior specialists,therapist
/social worker, speech and language pathologists, nurse, and for some
students, a community family resource person. The program works closely
with the medical community, as there are so many students who are under
medical care.

Students diagnosic services are available through the SPEED referral
system. Personnel from the Therapeutic Program also are available to
assist the staff of a school district develop strategies for remediation
of a student that they are attempting to maintain in the student's home
school.