Transition & Standard 9

The Y.A.L.E. School recognizes that all of our students need to become competent, self-directed citizens in their community, whether they are going on to higher education or preparing for the working world.

Our staff helps each student set realistic goals for life after graduation. We guide students and families as they identify and connect with local programs and resources that best match a student’s needs and interests.

We offer vocational and pre-vocational assessment and instruction, job coaching, self-advocacy skills, recreation skills, community living skills, and transportation training.

The Y.A.L.E. School offers several options designed to support the transition of students from school to adult life.

Transition at the Cherry Hill Campus

Standard 9: 21st Century Life and Career Skills is a unique transition concentration based at our Cherry Hill campus for high school students 17 to 21 years of age who are either preparing for college or who are not planning to go to college, but whose IEPs require additional support and training to prepare for independence and employment.

Staffed by a trained transition team, the Standard 9 transition concentration teaches:

Academics: specially-tailored academic instruction with a focus on applicable real-world life and career skills, and/or college preparation and placement testing.

Career Prep: Students learn job interviewing techniques and résumé writing, and participate in community-based and campus-based job shadowing, job sampling, internships, and apprenticeships.

Community Involvement: Students plan and participate in community projects and service-learning opportunities.

Life Skills: Students practice cooking, cleaning, banking, shopping, personal hygiene, and organization. As part of the concentration, they use an on-campus life-skills lab to develop and apply more complex social competencies.

Technology Skills: Students use the internet, email, word processing, and productivity software to make presentations, learn about data, data entry, graphic design and more.

The Standard 9 Cherry Hill concentration, housed at our Cherry Hill campus, offers students the opportunity to continue academic work in language arts and mathematics while receiving instruction in career preparation and independent living skills. These students participate in formal classroom instruction, weekly social-skills classes, and community-based instruction. They also work at community-based job internships or campus-based school-to-work jobs, and plan and organize community-based service learning projects.

Because a majority of graduates from The Y.A.L.E. School have a goal of continuing on to higher education, we support these students with unique college-based transition options:

The Standard 9 Scholars and the Standard 9 Campus concentrations, based at our Cherry Hill campus, are offered in collaboration with Camden County College. These concentrations provide support and services to college-bound students whose IEP goals require a gradual transition to the academic, social, and organizational demands of college life. The program offers academic tutoring and support, coaching for organizational and social skills instruction. Students participate in a Y.A.L.E. high school program within the physical setting of a college campus. They take academic college modules, work at on-campus internships, take college health and physical education modules, and are involved in community-based service learning projects.

For more information about Standard 9, please call Margaret Chapman at (856) 482-5252 x195 or send her an email.

Transition at other Y.A.L.E. campuses

Both The Y.A.L.E. School’s Northfield and Williamstown campuses offer transition services for students 14 to 21 years of age and provide specialized instruction designed to help students develop skills needed for a successful transition to adult life. Students can exit school with post-secondary supports in place, most often in the form of a job and/or college placement.

The Y.A.L.E. School’s Audubon and Voorhees campuses also offer transition consultation services and support for some students.

For more information about the specific transition services offered at any of our campuses, please contact an admissions coordinator.