Best Special Needs Schools in Niles, Illinois (2026)

The Charles H. Walsh Sr. Academy & Career Tech High School opened its Niles campus in fall 2023, continuing Maryville's former Jen School. We are a therapeutic day school fully approved by the Illinois State Board of Education as a nonpublic special education facility, serving students ages 14 to 22 in grades 9 to 12 and beyond. Our students include young people with autism, emotional disabilities, intellectual disabilities, specific learning disabilities, speech and language disabilities, other health impairments and multiple disabilities, and students who have experienced trauma. Each classroom has a special education teacher, a social worker or counselor, and a paraprofessional, and social emotional learning is built into each lesson. A school psychologist, speech and language services and a nurse are on site. Students 15 and older earn credit and a stipend working with job coaches in horticulture, janitorial work, animal grooming, bicycle repair, woodworking, graphic design and podcasting, and our transition classroom prepares graduates 18 and older for work and independent living. The school year also includes a garden and greenhouse, pet therapy, a 3D printer lab, ropes courses and fishing trips.

• Private special education therapeutic day school (9-12+)
• Autism
• Emotional disabilities
• Intellectual disability