The mission of the Northern Rhode Island Collaborative Specialized Alternative Program (SAP) is to promote and enrich the educational and social well-being of its students by facilitating the provision of education services/delivery systems for students with significant and multiple disabilities and their families preparing the student to become an independent and productive member of society. We believe our responsibility to the children of this program is to remain on the cutting edge of educational practices so as to be responsive to their needs and to those of the sending communities. We help orchestrate the full range of services needed in the least restrictive environment for these students, and work to help change attitudes and practices in support of the growth of the students we serve. The primary goal of the school experience is to develop community, leisure/play, vocational, and domestic skills which will afford each student the potential for functioning as independently as possible when he/she enters the adult phase of his/her life.
The Specialized Alternative Program services students who range in age from three to twenty-one years. The students who are serviced in these programs are often identified as having significant or multiple disabilities by their school districts. The Northern Rhode Island Collaborative also services a population of pre-school children who are in need of a full-day/self-contained program. This is a structured, language-based program for students who are developmentally or language delayed and/or who have behavioral challenges. The emphasis is on providing services in an integrated manner where students develop functional life skills in a variety of settings with access to typically developing students.
Educational instruction, provided by a teacher and his/her assistants are augmented by the related services of a school social worker, occupational therapist, adaptive physical education instructor, speech therapist and physical therapist other consulting and direct service providers necessary to meet the IEP needs of individual students. Often the pupils served in SAP have medical conditions that require monitoring or district intervention of a school nurse/teacher. These classes serve pre-school through secondary populations who present varying degrees of developmental disabilities with medical involvement.
Pre-School Pals
The Pre-School Pals Program is the integrated component of the Northern Rhode Island Collaborative pre-school SAP program. It provides the opportunity for children with and without disabilities to learn and grow together in a nurturing, stimulating, and safe environment.
Please see the NRIC Specialized Alternative Program Student/Parent Handbook for 2008-09.
For more information on the Specialized Alternative Program, contact Robert E. Wall, Jr., Director of Educational Services at (401) 658-5790 Ext. 225.
