Admissions | Brooks Therapeutic Academy

Students with complex needs deserve a school built with them in mind.

Brooks is designed primarily for students whose educational needs arise from moderate to profound intellectual disabilities. Students may also have complex communication, physical, sensory, medical, mobility, or regulation needs.

Initial startup phase: approximately three to four classrooms serving students ages 5–13, with a long-term vision of serving ages 3–22.

Admission is based on the whole student

Brooks looks beyond a single diagnosis. The central question is whether the Brooks Model is the right educational environment for the student’s overall needs.

Functional academics and life-centered learning

Consistent communication access

Integrated therapeutic support

Adaptive equipment and accessible environments

Health, sensory, and regulation supports

Autism may co-occur with a student’s intellectual disability, but Brooks is not designed as an autism-specific or behavior-only program.

Who Brooks is designed to serve

Students may have multiple disabilities, complex medical needs, physical disabilities, significant communication differences, sensory needs, regulation needs, developmental delays, traumatic brain injury, or autism that co-occurs with intellectual disability.

What Brooks is not designed for

Autism alone is not an admission criterion, although it is not automatically disqualifying. Brooks is not intended as an autism-specific or behavior-only program, or for students whose primary needs arise from emotional disability without moderate-to-profound intellectual disability.

Planned referral process

Referral from a school district or inquiry from a parent or guardian.
Review of the IEP, educational records, therapy reports, and medical history.
Parent or guardian interview.
Observation in the current setting or at Brooks.
Team review of student fit, available space, staffing, resources, and safety.

Possible outcomes will include acceptance, waitlist placement, or a decision that Brooks is not the appropriate placement. Acceptance will not automatically guarantee public funding.

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