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Empowering kids to optimize their own learning, social & emotional outcomes
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Tuition levels and affording a Cajal Academy Education

Tuition models aligned with our non-profit mission to empower kids

Cajal Academy offers a range of programming levels, reflecting the diversity of the intellectually-gifted and twice exceptional cohort of children whom we serve and our mission as a nonprofit organization to give a broader base of students access to neuroscience-driven education.

An outplacement to Cajal Academy is not about ‘putting a child in a bubble.’ Rather, it is a small and focused environment in which to identify and remove the roadblocks that have led our extremely bright students to feel unsuccessful in mainstream environments. In the admissions process, our clinical team reviews each child’s file to determine what programming level and customization will be required to address—not just accommodate—the challenges that are threatening to hold a child back. Our aim is to help students discover and experience their own gifts, while giving them a toolbox they can use to self-monitor, self-manage and self-advocate for their needs in whatever educational, social or professional setting they prefer. Successful applicants are invited to join at a specific programming level.

Our spectrum of programming and tuition levels is intended to make our program accessible to as many children as possible, while providing a home where students with even very complex profiles can learn within a community of peers. Many children will join at our new, Core Program level. Others will gradually be able to reduce their programming to this level as they progress through the program and respond to our interventions and unique environment. Our team will also advise you if a change in programming levels is required to address new needs as they arise. Having this spectrum of service levels within an expertised environment gives kids the advantage of a stable social community where they can continue to engage in intellectually-stimulating academic programs at prices competitive with mainstream environments that do not offer any special education services.

 

Coming in fall, 2022: new programming levels opening up our neuroscience-driven educational approach to more students, at a tuition equivalent to many mainstream private schools!

We are excited to take the next step forward in our innovation process, by making the protocols and approaches we’ve developed over the past 3 years available to a broader base of intellectually-gifted kids, at a start tuition level of $47,500.

new tuition and programming levels
 

Flexible tuition arrangements & affording a Cajal Academy education

Special education programs are costly, but there are a number of ways that families can get assistance, depending on their child’s needs and circumstances, including tax deductions, school district funding and flexible tuition payment schedules.

 

Affording a Cajal Academy education

As parents ourselves, we recognize that the cost of a Cajal Academy tuition may be prohibitive for many families; unfortunately, it is inherently expensive to provide highly-specialized special education programs with licensed therapeutic providers.

By the same token, the fact that we are a special education school with licensed therapists on staff opens up a number of financing options that may help to defray the cost of a Cajal Academy tuition for many families. Here are some of the ways that other families have approached this challenges; we cannot advise on these matters but recommend that you contact a special education attorney or tax advisor to explore your options.

 

Integrated therapeutic services

For some families, the fact that expert-level occupational, physical and psychological services are integrated into our program through on-site services significantly reduces the effective cost of our program, by eliminating the need for additional community-based services (and leaving kids free to “be kids” after school!).

learn more about our integrated therapies


School district outplacements

Several families have already been successful at securing reimbursement for their Cajal Academy tuition and/or transportation from their public school districts.

Whether public funding is available will depend on the facts of your child’s needs and your district’s ability to meet them—but families successfuly secure funding for their children’s outplacement tuitions every day. We are unable to advise on these matters and urge you to consult with a special education attorney about your particular circumstances.

 

Tax deductions for special education school tuitions

Additionally, depending on your child’s diagnosis, tax benefits may be available to help defray the costs of your child’s program. For some families, this may include a deduction for tuition as a medical expense. Please consult a qualified tax advisor to find out more about whether this is an option in your child’s case.

 

Flexible Tuition Arrangements

We are a tuition-funded, non-profit school—and we were co-founded by a special education mom who knows just how daunting outplacement tuitions can be on a family budget. For families who do not have access to outside funding sources, we have a number of flexible payment options. These include:

  • Payment in one annual installment

  • Payment and enrollment on a semester-by-semester basis

  • Payment in 10 installments

Families paying in any way other than a single annual installment will be charged a non-refundable, 3.19% insurance fee.

In addition, it may be possible for some portion the therapeutic services delivered as part of our custom programming levels to be separately billed so that they may be submitted to your health insurance provider. Whether or to what extent this is an option will depend on your child’s diagnoses and programming needs. This option is not available for therapeutic services that are embedded within classroom instruction through our therapist co-taught classes and other approaches. These options should be discussed with us in the admissions process if this is of interest to you.

 
 

Tuition and Financing Frequently Asked Questions

  • In many cases, yes—although whether your child is eligible for tuition support from your school district for any school outplacement will always be heavily dependent on their specific needs and other circumstances. Under federal education law, every child is entitled to a “free and appropriate public education.” If your school district is unable to provide a program that is appropriate to your child’s needs, they will look first to the list of state-approved special education outplacement programs. However, if there is no program appropriate to your needs on that list then they will consider an outplacement to a school that is not on the approved list. This requires that they make a placement via a consensual settlement agreement rather than via a “PPT placement,” but the effect is the same.

    We started Cajal Academy because Connecticut and Westchester County lacked a special education outplacement setting where intellectually-gifted students could access services from licensed therapists without sacrificing academic programs appropriate to their abilities. To our knowledge, we are also the first in the world to offer programs tailored to helping children who have both very high cognitive skills and chronic medical conditions learn how to monitor, manage and advocate for hidden internal events that can variably impact their learning, social and emotional availability. Thus, for many students Cajal Academy will be the only appropriate outplacement setting available within our community.

    You can learn more about these matters and find attorneys specializing in special education from the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates.

  • Yes, assuming we have space in our program to conduct a diagnostic placement at that time. Our team of licensed therapists were specifically-chosen for their expertise in not only treating but diagnosing learning, neurophysiological and social-emotional challenges. By building a school for gifted children around a multi-disciplinary clinic, we are able to identify and make programming recommendations for students who have complex profiles with overlapping challenges. This includes students who have multiple concomitant learning disabilities, dysregulation triggered by sensory processing disorder and other hidden neurophysiological events and more. Our Director of Programs is a recognized clinician, academic, researcher and medical school professor with direct ties to the neuropsychological research community including over 70 peer-reviewed papers. With his guidance, we have developed a systematic process for analyzing overlapping areas of special education need, developing treatment protocols to address them and prioritizing that program to maximize the student’s academic and social-emotional development.

    Please note that Cajal Academy does not enter into direct financial relationships with local school districts, however we do enter into agreements with families who are independently reimbursed by their district. This applies to diagnostic placements as well.

  • Yes! Cajal Academy welcomes referrals from school districts in Connecticut and New York state. Interested district leaders in finding out about potential outplacement opportunities for a student may contact our Head of School directly, at (203) 244-6575. We are happy to set up an information session for members of your staff to share more information about our unique program. Please note that Cajal Academy does not enter into direct financial relationships with local school districts, however we do enter into agreements with families who are independently reimbursed by their district.

  • Likely yes. Our entire program is informed by our co-founder’s determination that we should apply all available science to remove the obstacles standing in her own twice exceptional children’s way, so they can go forward prepared to thrive in whatever educational and professional environments they choose. Thus, we are focused from day one on giving kids the tools they need to chart their own course: a commitment to helping them discover and develop their gifts that goes beyond transitioning them back to mainstream environments.

    Our spectrum of programming options facilitates this. We assess a child’s needs during the admissions and intake process and then make an admissions offer at the programming level that our team believes most appropriate to addressing their needs. However, beginning with the application itself our goal is to address the challenges holding a child back, through our unique combination of a learning environment and pedagogy aligned to the neuroscience of learning, and our team’s innovative, neuroscience-based interventions to remediate neurocognitive deficits. For many students, this combination will allow them to gradually transition towards our Core Program level, which is priced equivalent to many mainstream private schools in the area that lack our academic focus on intellectually-gifted kids, our expert therapeutic team and our trauma-informed environment. Some may elect to stay in our community at this programming level in preparation for a mainstream college experience, while others will elect to transition back to public school and other mainstream environments. Our goal is to remediate the challenges standing in a child’s way so that this becomes a matter of choice.