Enrollment

Q: What is the current enrollment at Crossroads and what is the age bracket for those students?

A: Students aged 3-16 years old can attend Crossroads School.  The program currently services 42 students. 

Q: How many total students are in one classroom and how are they assigned to that specific room?

A: Currently we have seven classrooms. Each room has been assigned a specific amount of students that varies from three to eight students.

Students are assigned to a classroom based on age and their individual educational needs. Classroom placements may change during the school year due to student progress.

Q: What is the teacher/staff to student ratio and do you provide one-on-one education?

A: The teacher/staff to student ratio is two teacher/staff to every three students (2:3). One-on-one staffing can be provided if the Team determines this is necessary.

Q: Are you a year round program?

A: Yes. Students attend Crossroads a total of 226 days per year. School hours are 9:00am-2:30pm and office hours are 8:00am-4:00pm.

Staff Qualifications

Q: What type of qualifications do the teachers/staff at Crossroads hold?

A: Teachers at Crossroads are either certified or waivered by the Department of Education (DOE). ABA Counselors are not required to have a college degree, however, the majority of our counselors possess four-year college degrees.

Q: What types of training programs are offered to Crossroad's staff?

A variety of in-service and direct service training are provided to our staff, including:

General Training:
• First Aid
• Medical Administration
• CPR
• Student Confidentiality 
• Child abuse and neglect
• Physical Intervention Training and de-escalation techniques
• Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks - Assessments/MCAS

ABA Related Training:
• Data collection and analysis
• Phases of teaching
• Behavior management
• Task analysis
• Antecedent modification
• Functional communication training
• Activity schedules
• Prompting techniques
• Use of visual supports
• Promoting independence
• Teaching socialization and play skills
• Desensitization programming

Q: Are there nurses on staff?

A: Yes. A registered nurse is on-site during school hours. The nurse is able to provide medical care and dispense prescription and over the counter medication as needed.

Admissions

Q: What is the admissions process at Crossroads?

A:  Please refer to the Admission Page

Parent Involvement & Communication

Q: How do parents stay informed about their child's progress?

A: One important way to facilitate parent/teacher communication is through the Crossroads communication notebook, which is sent home daily. The communication notebook contains a brief description of daily activities, data collections and various other anecdotal behavioral notes. Each student's data is customized and unique to the child. Parents have the opportunity to communicate daily with the classroom staff via the notebook. 


Q: What opportunities are available for parents wishing to be involved in their child's education?

A: Crossroads provides a supportive family centered environment that encourages parent participation. From the open door policy to our willingness to work with outside agencies and professionals, Crossroads ensures consistency across home and school environments.

Q: We have heard that Crossroads holds "Student Day" as another means of parent/teacher communication. What is "Student Day?"

A: Once a month, parents may come to the school and participate in their child's day. 

The day is divided into three components: Hands on Training, Consistency Meeting, and Team Meeting.

· Hands On Training: This meeting provides parents the opportunity to not only see what their child is working on in a specific domain, but the opportunity to participate in the teaching and learning of skills while receiving feedback from the appropriate professional.

· Consistency Meeting: This meeting takes place after school with the student and the student's team. Each professional works with the student demonstrating teaching methods and data collection for each objective. This ensures consistency among staff teaching methods, as well as validity and reliability of the data collection. This provides parents with an opportunity to observe details of the child's entire program. 

· Team Meeting: This meeting allows the parent to speak directly with the professional team to discuss other questions or concerns that they may have. Some parents come to the meeting with specific questions in mind as how to build skills in the home environment, while others take the opportunity to interact with their child's team.

Parents are truly a part of the team and parental feedback and communication is essential to the student's education. Crossroads emphasizes teaching the 'whole student' by focusing on functional skills in the school that can be used in the community and the home environment.

Q: Does Crossroads provide home services?

A: No. Home services are not provided as part of our program.

If a student receives home services, Crossroads will collaborate with the home provider to ensure consistency across settings and to work collectively on shared goals.