CASE Conf 2025

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From Chaos to Class Act: Flipping the Script on Day Treatment Classrooms (Room 202 second floor)

Creating a student-centered, supportive, and structured Day Treatment classroom is essential to ensuring that students with significant behavioral and mental health needs receive the services they require in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Our district recognized the need to revamp our approach to Day Treatment by shifting from a reactive, compliance-driven model to a proactive, student-focused framework that prioritizes academic progress, behavioral stability, and mental health support. This session will explore how we flipped the script on our Day Treatment program, transforming it from a setting of crisis management to one of purposeful intervention and structured support. We restructured our student placement process, ensuring that recommendations are guided by comprehensive data analysis and meaningful discussions among IEP teams, mental health professionals, and educators. By becoming a part our district's Least Restrictive Environment Committee, we created a system that adheres to state and federal regulations while also providing guidance and training for staff on how to make informed, student-centered decisions. Additionally, we redesigned the classroom structure to integrate mental health services, behavioral interventions, and academic supports seamlessly, ensuring that students receive the tools they need to thrive both inside and outside the classroom. Through this transformation, we have created a model where students are not only placed in the most appropriate setting but are also given the resources and interventions necessary to transition successfully into less restrictive environments.