Educational Enhancements At The Family School

Family Foundation School would like to share an exciting change taking place regarding our summer academic and program offerings.

The New York State Department of Education, Board of Regents has decided to discontinue offering its state wide Regents examinations in January. We thought this change would provide an excellent opportunity to re-work our semester structure. We have decided to create a summer school enrichment program which will not only allow us to maintain our commitment to the individual academic needs of our students but also allow us to offer additional character building opportunities and additional academic electives.

The new summer session will allow students to complete an entire semester of work in one or two regent's courses during a six-week period. This is an excellent catch-up opportunity for students who have fallen behind in previous semesters. For those students who are already experiencing academic success, this will be the opportunity for them to take one or two electives that may not be offered during the normal school schedule. FFS will continue to offer dual enrollment in applicable classes allowing students to earn College as well as HS credits.

The Summer session will start July 5 and end on August 16. Regents exams for applicable subjects will be held on August 17 and 18. Our fall semester will now begin on August 23 and will be back to the normal daily schedule of classes.

During the summer session each class will meet for 2 periods (approximately 2 hours including a break) 4 days per week. The rest of the student's day will be available for special activities designed to enrich the mind, body and soul. A few of the electives being considered are: Basketball Camp, Soccer Camp, Fishing, Swimming, Civil War History Class, Renaissance Festival/Medieval Day, Women's Studies, 12 step recovery meetings (not focusing only on AA but EA, NA and OA as well), Movies, and Mastering Chess.

Some of the electives will require commitments from the students for two or more weeks while others will be selections that will allow students more personal flexibility as they will have choices each week. Student access to counseling services will continue and in several scenarios increase based on the activities selected.

We anticipate developing this in more detail over the comings weeks, but thought we should get this information to you at this juncture. We are excited about the opportunities that this affords our students (both current and future) and given the excitement and energy about it at the school, it should prove to be a great addition.

The Family Foundation School is a private, therapeutic boarding school for teens at risk, serving grades 9 through 12.