St. Joseph Program

The St. Joseph’s Program is staffed with highly qualified special and general education professionals dedicated to empower students to think on their own, take responsibility for their decisions and become life-long learners.

The St. Joseph’s Program is proud to offer individualized assistance while maintaining high expectations. Established in 2010, the program extends and formalizes the support given to Bishop McNamara High School students with learning differences. The St. Joseph’s Program provides reasonable accommodations in consultation with teachers and guidance counselors.

The St. Joseph’s Program accepts students admitted to Bishop McNamara High School with documented learning differences. As the program accepts 10-15 students annually, early application with complete documentation is encouraged. Admission to the program requires the submission of recent psycho-educational testing along with an application to the St. Joseph’s Program and an application for admission to Bishop McNamara High School.

For incoming freshmen, students complete a 4-week summer program prior to their 9th grade year. The summer program includes reading and mathematics content paired with skill development and orientation activities for high school.

The St. Joseph’s Program is designed to provide a positive, Catholic, college preparatory, educational and social experience for a select group of students with diagnosed learning differences.

The St. Joseph’s Program is staffed with highly qualified special and general education professionals dedicated to empower students to think on their own, take responsibility for their decisions and become life-long learners.

The support given to students in the classroom is guided by our team of skilled content-area instructors in collaboration with the St. Joseph’s Program staff and the counseling office. The teachers implement interventions and accommodations.

Families, teachers, counselors and administrators work together to support all of our St. Joseph’s Program students. The St. Joseph’s Program staff instructs the summer school program for incoming St. Joseph’s freshmen, easing their transition to high school.

Our staff is dedicated to the success of the student - academically, socially and with any of their goals.

Students in the St. Joseph Program may have testing accommodations on their Individual Accommodation Plan (IAP). These accommodations may include one or more of the following:

• Extended time
• Test response monitoring
• Multiple testing sessions

The St. Joseph Center provides a quiet, separate environment for students to take tests. When a test is to be administered for a class, the teacher sends the student to the Center to take the test.

See St. Joseph Program Testing Information.

St. Joseph Program fee (inclusive of required summer school fees) for the 9th-grade year is set at $2000. Incoming students entering beyond freshman year will receive an adjusted rate. The fee for support through the St. Joseph Center in subsequent years is $500.

Individual Accommodation Plans (IAP) are created for each student. Plans are based on testing recommendations, teacher observations, and student needs. IAPs are updated as appropriate.

The IAP may include:

• Consultation with St. Joseph Center staff
• Extended time for testing
• Testing in the St. Joseph Center
• An extra set of textbooks for home use
• Copies of lecture notes
• Preferential seating
• Foreign language assistance
• Adaptive technology usage
• Other specific accommodations as needed

Accommodations:

• Provide equitable access
• Do not change the construct being assessed
• Do not compromise the integrity or validity of the test
• Do not reduce learning expectations
• Result in valid, meaningful test results
• Adjusts how a student learns and demonstrates mastery
• Do not adjust what a student learns