Essex Upper

Essex Academy Upper School is a therapeutic educational program for students with social and emotional disabilities. For the students, it provides a supportive, academic environment that leads to personal and academic growth and learning. It provides a small, structured academic and therapeutic environment for students who are currently unable to make effective progress in a typical school setting because of their social/emotional needs.

The Essex Academy Upper School’s academic curriculum is based on the guidelines set forth by the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and the Common Core. The McGraw-Hill curriculum is the foundation on which our teachers base their differentiated instruction. The staff is committed to providing each student with a concrete set of both academic and career skills. Many students have the opportunity to participate in vocational placements including but not limited to: wood shop, culinary arts, and auto shop. Experiential learning is designed to give students an opportunity to have community-based experiences to generalize learned behaviors and skills.

Staffing includes (but is not limited to): Special education teachers, content subject teachers, and licensed social workers.  The following are available by request/as needed: Speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, school psychologists, board-certified behavior analysts (BCBA), and art therapists.  All Essex Academy Upper School teachers and clinical staff possess a Master’s Degree in related fields. An experienced, licensed social worker works on-site exclusively within this program.

DESE – Essex Academy Upper Program Approval