Branches School of the Berkshires

Branches School of the Berkshires opened in Pittsfield in 2020 as a nonprofit private school serving students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Two Board Certified Behavior Analysts founded it, and Applied Behavior Analysis runs through every part of our 12-month, full-day program of 223 school days.

BCBAs supervise every classroom. We build each student's curriculum from the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, targeting verbal, social, academic, executive functioning and daily living skills, and we use materials such as the Edmark Reading Program and IXL, with discrete trial training for students who benefit from it. Our team includes a licensed speech-language pathologist who has worked with us since opening and an occupational therapist, and our teachers cover classrooms up through high school. Donors helped us add a vocational and sensory room.

Staff review every student's data and graphs in weekly meetings. Each month, parents attend a Student Day to practice their child's programs with the lead ABA teacher and go over progress with the clinical director. Students who meet the criteria can follow a structured inclusion plan back to their home district.