Our Mission

Passageway School is a school for students with special needs located in Newbury Park, California. Our primary goal is to assist students with low-incidence disabilities such as Autism and Aspergers ACHIEVE. Often these Children have had great difficulty fitting into the mold in other structured environments. We try to accommodate our structure to meet the individual. This is achieved through intense symbiotic interaction between the student, parent and school.

Our Mission is to provide a safe, intimate environment for students with special needs who have not performed adequately in more traditional and/or alternate settings. We endeavor to modify the curriculum as much as possible to meet each individual need, and seek to improve inappropriate behavior, if present, in an effective and humane fashion. Every child will be encouraged to meet their maximum potential. Passageway School prides itself on cutting edge-innovation, as demonstrated by our emphasis upon the latest in computer learning technologies, such touch screens, computer projection and a school theater. Individualized learning provides the foundation for accommodating the needs of each student through project based learning.

All curriculum is tailored to the individual student. This means that teaching methods are applied with recognition of each Child's challenges and strengths. We recognize that a disability doesn't mean an excuse to fail. All of our students are expected to achieve their potential. We are dedicated to making sure that a child's I.E.P. is a "living document", designed for a real purpose, and diligently pursued or, where necessary, MODIFIED. The Passageway curriculum follows state mandated curriculum defined by the California Department of Education. This is enhanced by state of the art computer lab and an abundance of standard based software programs accommodating a continuum of cognitive skills to reach all students. Passageway school emphasizes experiential learning and community based instruction for students following a Functional Skills Curriculum. Project-based learning, wherein students create to learn, combined with daily work on IEP goal progress permits us to provide a superior learning environment. Students are exposed to an incentive program where they have daily opportunities to "Earn and Learn" as part of a holistic behavior modification program which rewards proper behavior amply, tangibly and readily.

Children are like a beautiful new day. No two are the same. Some come with rain and turmoil. But in the end, each comes with renewed promise. It is up to us to do our best to shape each day in the right way. So much more is true for our Children. For without their uniqueness, Life would not be worth living....