Individualized Education Program (IEP)

ROA’s flagship and most requested program is its Individualized Education Program (IEP). This program uses a wide-range of proven educational strategies ready to meet the needs of each student. An IEP is designed with parents or guardians to address the specific needs or wants, which may include: supports to address learning differences, support for ADHD, specialized modifications and accommodations, schedule alternatives, self-paced programs, co-op programs, social skills or counseling. Intensive daily supports and therapies are available. Accommodations can be made for life situations that require educational alternatives. This program is available for students in grades K thru 12 and coincides with one of our academic tracks.

Methods and Strategies

ROA programming and interactions with students follow a variety of social-learning and cognitive-behavioral principles. These are the most effective strategies known in the evidence-based literature for developing students' social and behavioral skills. The learning community created by ROA staff is one that teaches and encourages students to make functional and effective choices. Attentional problems, distractibility, mood regulation problems and the like are all amenable to cognitive-behavioral interventions. Staff are trained to respect differences and interact in ways that work with presenting issues, not in confrontation of them. Listening to student's concerns and being able to discern their needs and address them requires training and experience. Structure and guidance are provided throughout the school day.

Learning styles and capacities are key to understanding how to teach students of all kinds. Neuro-typical students as well as neuro-atypical ones have differing strengths and weaknesses. Our staff are experienced in assessing a student's styles and using them to their educational advantage. There are myriad ways to break down a lesson into small building blocks that enhances a student's capacity to learn the material. There are educational materials and modifications that are used to teach and remediate areas of difficulty for each student. Since our classes have small student teacher ratios, your child will get the individualized attention he/she needs to succeed.

Accredited Programming.

River Oaks Academy is proudly accredited by the following well established and widely renowned organizations:

• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)

• Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Why are accreditations important? Because it gives consumers the confidence that there are high quality standards being followed that directly impact the quality of the education being provided. SACS and TEA both have a series of well-developed standards for educational programming that govern how daily operations are designed. Important domains such as Leadership, Instruction and Safety are just a few of the areas that are codified. We voluntarily elect to be independently audited every three years in order to maintain the strength of the program. Students who graduate from the 12th grade receive a valid diploma. Credits earned at ROA are transferrable.

Academic Tracks.

River Oaks Academy serves students from Kindergarten through twelfth (K-12) grades. All grade levels are offered in small classroom environments. Your student will receive significantly more teacher attention than the vast majority of schools due to low student teacher ratios (approximately 1:7, not including paraprofessionals). Classes are grouped according to grade as well as academic levels.

Curriculum. As a TEA approved school, ROA follows the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) curriculum. The comprehensive curriculum guide can be found at the TEA web site (http://www.tea.state.tx.us) and click the TEKS link.