Related Services

The Community High School specializes in offering a comprehensive range of services specifically designed to cater to our students' needs. We provide career services, occupational therapy, Orton-Gillingham and Wilson reading services, senior advising, social-emotional counseling, and speech and language therapy to assist students in achieving their academic objectives and promoting functional life skills. CHS delivers high-quality services that are customized to address the unique needs of each student. Our highly skilled staff members are fully committed to supporting students in their pursuit of goals, and we are dedicated to fostering a nurturing and inclusive environment where all students can flourish.

CHS Related Services

Speech & Language

The Community High School provides speech and language services to support students who present with speech and language disorders or difficulties. Students develop effective communication strategies for different aspects of communication, including:

Articulation
Executive functioning skills
Fluency
Receptive and expressive language skills
Social pragmatic skills
Verbal and nonverbal communication skills

Life skills and post-secondary transitioning skills are also implemented during sessions in order to aid students in developing functional life skills. Certified speech-language pathologists administer speech and language services through individual therapy sessions, group sessions, social skill groups, and classroom-based instruction. These services are customized to suit the unique requirements of each student according to their diagnosis and individual objectives mandated on their IEPs. These services provide students with opportunities to generalize their learned skills in real-world settings. By developing and applying these functional life skills, students can improve their ability to transition into and thrive within their chosen communities.

Beyond CHS

Career Discovery Program

At CHS, we provide direct instruction to our students in their planning for post-secondary life. Through informal assessments, class discussions, and the New Jersey Career Assistance Navigator (NJCAN), a web-based career exploration site, we collect information that guides college and career planning throughout a student’s four years here. We also encourage students to try new activities, build upon their interests, and get involved in their neighborhoods. We prompt them to participate in extracurricular activities and community service. We have a Community Service program in which the older students act as interns to a cooperating teacher at the Lower School. Our Career Discovery program is also an excellent opportunity for students to see various careers. As students progress through high school, we ask for more introspection from our students as we start to hone in on what they want to do in the future. The goal is always the same: creating a post-secondary plan matching an individual’s strengths, interests, and aspirations to achieve a successful future.

In the junior year, our guidance staff encourages students to visit colleges and other post-secondary options, and build a comprehensive resume that includes awards, achievements, involvement in community service practices, extracurricular activities, and paid work involvement. Also, several college representatives come and speak to our junior class.

Senior Guidance

For 12th grade college bound students, round table discussions on the social and emotional transition to college are provided to discuss topics such as dorm life, personal safety, navigating the social scene, and maintaining emotional health. Each senior has an individual meeting to discuss post-secondary education plans. Senior year focuses on narrowing options and interests and applying to colleges and transition programs.

We specialize in finding colleges and universities with comprehensive programs for students with learning differences. All students work directly with a school counselor and a senior advisor who assists them in completing applications, attaining letters of recommendation, meeting deadlines, constructing an essay, and updating their resumes and transitions. We pride ourselves on being highly involved in each step of the post-secondary process.

Quest Program

The Quest Program allows students ages 18-21 to continue their education in a familiar environment and gain additional preparation for their post-secondary education plans or for their entry into the workforce. Quest's differentiated and individualized academic classes and elective courses, along with life skills and executive functioning classes, provide our students with additional tools for the future.

Reading

The Community High School Reading Department brings decades of experience and specialized expertise in reading instruction. All reading specialists are either Orton-Gillingham Certified or trained through an IMSLEC-accredited program.

Students who require additional reading support receive direct, explicit, and structured remedial instruction through a multisensory approach grounded in the Orton-Gillingham methodology. This evidence-based instruction targets the development of foundational reading skills, including decoding, phonics, morphology, vocabulary, and fluency.

Instruction is delivered in one-on-one or small-group settings, depending on each student’s individual needs, allowing for personalized attention and targeted skill development. In addition to pull-out intervention, reading specialists may also provide push-in support within content-area classrooms, helping students apply learned reading strategies across subject areas.

Occupational Therapy

The Community High School Occupational Therapy department supports students throughout the educational process in a variety of ways, with individual and group sessions that reflect the varied needs and challenges that students face during the transition to and at the high school level. Key areas include the development and implementation of organizational routines, executive functioning skills, and self-regulation skills to promote the highest level of independent learning and participation across the curriculum at Community High School.

Social Emotional Counseling

The Community High School offers a comprehensive counseling program that promotes achievement in academics, career, transition, and social/emotional domains.

Our counseling department has two branches:

social/emotional counseling
college/career/transition counseling

There are four counselors on staff for our social-emotional branch of counseling. We offer individual and group counseling as an IEP related service; however, any student can “drop in” to see a counselor at any time. Individual counseling focuses on managing emotions, establishing personal goals, self-esteem, development of coping strategies for stress management, self-advocacy, decision-making strategies, problem-solving skills, peer pressure, etc. Group counseling focuses on social and conversational skills, resolving conflicts, peer support, and social problem-solving.

NEW STUDENT ORIENTATION
All new students to Community High School participate in our New Student Orientation Program. Our goal is to assist all our new students with a smooth transition to high school and begin their journey of belonging and bonding with our CHS family.

Orientation classes consist of a welcome class, ice breaker activities, CHS technology, intro to study skills, digital citizenship/navigating social media, and a code of conduct class to help ease the academic, social, and emotional transition to high school. Additionally, all new students meet with a counselor for periodic check-ins throughout the year to assure a continued smooth transition to our school.

HORIZONS/PEER LEADERS
The Horizons/Peer Leaders Program is a resource available to all incoming students at the Community High School. In order to have a successful transition into the high school setting, students can utilize peer assistance and knowledge as a tool to develop and/or improve upon academic, social and behavioral excellence. Our group of Peer Leaders will work individually, as well as in groups, with new students on a weekly basis. All meetings between Peer Leaders and Horizon Members are run by our speech department.

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