All Help Group Schools Reopening

Virtually for the Fall Semester

Although The Help Group campuses remain closed, all school programs will reopen virtually for the fall semester on Tuesday, August 25^th. Additionally, our mental health services programs are continuing to provide the highest level of care to families through a telehealth platform. During these challenging times, The Help Group is steadfast in its commitment to provide the complete range of remote day school and therapeutic programs to all children and families served by the agency.

In March, when the Covid health pandemic began, The Help Group quickly mobilized, shifting to a Distance Learning & Remote Services model. The agency adapted very quickly to develop programs and services necessary and beneficial to the children and families we serve. We immediately developed a comprehensive distance-learning platform with both synchronous and asynchronous learning options. We approached this process with the commitment to enhancing the virtual learning experience of our students, and by providing ongoing training to our administrators, teachers and support staff.

Our schools have embraced four Guiding Standards with which we have focused our Distance Learning and Remote Services model on: Engagement, Individualization, Communication, and Equity. Within these Standards, we are committed to offering live and lively instruction, opportunities for students to interact and engage socially with one other, individualized learning plans for students to address their unique strengths and challenges associated with distance learning, enhanced opportunities for parent communication, and technology support to meet the needs of our students and staff.

Additionally, The Help Group has adapted its enrichment, support and after-school programming to a virtual platform. We learned that we could use this virtual model to enhance children’s life experiences through remote camp programs, social clubs, life skills coaching and parent support groups. The unforeseen benefits of virtual platforms has been the ability to reach children and families outside of our programs. Discovering this broader reach and the ability to use this format to enhance children’s life experiences became an unanticipated silver lining. We now offer a multitude of programs that are accessible in the evenings or weekdays for convenience, and some are offered at no cost to families.

“We look forward to the day when we can safely have students on our campuses, and when we can continue to offer additive programming to our community at-large,” says Dr. Susan Berman, COO of The Help Group. “We hope that day is soon. Until then, we will endeavor to provide the best virtual learning experience possible so that our students can continue to grow academically and socially. Beyond our virtual educational platforms, we will continue to implement virtual enrichment and support programs for the special needs community who may want or need remote services regardless of their geographic location.”