Since 1975 Lawrence Hall Youth Services' fully-accredited Therapeutic Day School has partnered with public school systems to educate students with emotional challenges, behavioral disorders, and learning disabilities that inhibit success in the public school setting.
Lawrence Hall is an Illinois State Board of Education approved residential placement facility. We provide strengths-based, youth centered, outcomes-driven, and family-focused residential care to youth and their families including:
- Comprehensive Assessments
- Behavior Management
- Individual, Group, and Family Therapy
- Expressive Therapies and Therapeutic Recreation
- Health and Wellness
- Case Management
The philosophy of Lawrence Hall’s school is to help each student achieve their maximum potential by providing individualized programs to improve the academic, emotional, and social performance. Our students participate in academics while receiving specialized care through our unique therapeutic programs including arts education, culinary arts, service learning and recreation. We help them develop the skills and resources they need to return to the public school setting, or enter the workforce, college or a vocational program.
The school’s specialized curriculum provides accredited year-round educational and vocational services from elementary through the high school level. Academic and social skills training occur in a small therapeutic environment with a student-teacher ratio of 10:2. The academic program at Lawrence Hall Youth Services is aligned with the Illinois Learning Standards and is modified to meet the needs of special education students. Upon graduation, students leave with a High School Diploma reflecting completion of the required classroom credit hours as well as their Service Learning obligation.
The school uses the Classroom Community Model as a framework for student behavior. In a classroom community, student outcomes include more than learning reading, writing, and arithmetic. Students learn to accept individual and social responsibility, to be self-disciplined, to make difficult decisions, to practice non-violent conflict resolution, and to help others do the same.
Lawrence Hall’s school has an 85% attendance rate and a 95% graduation rate. Additionally, 1 in 10 students is able to return to the public school system. A strong academic program taught within a Classroom Community Model, with supportive services and electives that meet the individual needs of each student makes Lawrence Hall’s Therapeutic Day School unique and successful with students who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks in the educational system.
For more information on the Residential Treatment opportunities available at Lawrence Hall Youth Services, please contact Vicki Hicks at (773) 769-3500 or vhicks@lawrencehall.org.
