Montessori Matters Preschool

Since 1998, Bright Beginnings Learning Center has run two specialized programs through the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey: one for students with autism and one for students with multiple disabilities. Our Program for Students with Autism serves preschoolers ages 3 to 5 and students ages 5 to 10. Instruction is based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis, delivered intensively and individually with a 2:1 student to staff ratio, and includes the Picture Exchange Communication System, augmentative communication evaluations, activities of daily living, and interactive boards and iPads. Our Program for Students with Multiple Disabilities serves children ages 3 to 13 with moderate to severe cognitive, neurological, medical, and orthopedic disabilities. Students learn in functionally grouped classes that build language, academic, social, and daily living skills, supported by Tap-It assistive technology, feeding and dysphagia management, individual behavior plans, and parent training. Occupational, physical, and speech therapy are part of our programs, and the building includes an Activities of Daily Living room and observation rooms for every elementary classroom. All curriculum offerings are approved by the New Jersey Department of Education.

The Educational Services Commission of New Jersey began as the Middlesex County Educational Services Commission, created when state law required public schools to provide textbook and transportation services to nonpublic school students. Today we are New Jersey's largest educational services commission, working with districts across all 21 counties. We operate six schools for students ages 3 to 21 with autism, multiple disabilities and behavioral needs. Our school locations include Piscataway Regional Day School, Future Foundations Academy and NuView Academy, and our Stelton Road campus also houses Adult Community Services, Community-Based Instruction and our Department of Non-Public Services. Other services include itinerant teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing, home instruction, instruction at Children's Specialized Hospital, a child study team, and Pathways to Adult Living for older students. For nonpublic schools we provide compensatory education, supplemental instruction, ESL and speech therapy. We also coordinate transportation for about 6,000 students.

NuView Academy, founded in 2000, is a New Jersey Department of Education approved program serving students ages 5 to 21, kindergarten through 12th grade, whose primary needs are psychiatric, emotional or behavioral. Our students can work at or near grade level but have struggled in a traditional school, and they are often managing depressive disorders, ADHD, mood disorders, conduct disorders or thought disorders. We are operated by the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey in partnership with Effective School Solutions, which provides our clinical services. Every student receives daily group therapy, weekly individual therapy and monthly family therapy, along with psychiatric evaluation, medication management and education, nursing support, cognitive behavioral skills instruction and anger management support. Interdisciplinary treatment teams meet regularly and work with each student's home district child study team. Academics follow the New Jersey Student Learning Standards and each student's IEP, and students take the state NJSLA and NJGPA assessments. Individualized PBIS, life skills instruction and parent education round out the program, and we run on a 48-week school year.