The Elija School

The ELIJA Foundation began serving Long Island families of children with autism in 2002, and we opened The ELIJA School in 2006 to carry that mission into the classroom. Our school runs a 12-month, full-day education and treatment program for school-aged children with autism, built on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Instruction is delivered one-to-one, with each student working in a personal instructional area stocked with materials suited to how that child learns. Group activity areas support social goals, and small-group teaching happens both in the classroom and in natural settings. We focus on functional communication, academics, social skills and life skills. Teachers collect data daily, behavior analysts on staff supervise every program, and we have indoor and outdoor gyms.

Our treatment protocols are reviewed by an independent Human Rights Committee, and outside evaluators review the quality of our program. As students grow older, our Transitional Programs and Services offer vocational assessments, a 35-course independent living curriculum held at LIU Post, internships, and social enterprises such as the ELIJA Farm CSA and Just cAUse granola. A need-based scholarship fund is available.