Photo courtesy of Oakstone Academy
The city of Westerville is home to one of the few schools in the U.S. founded on the principle of providing a truly inclusive environment for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
Oakstone Academy, located on South State Street, has created a school where students with autism are full participants in the classroom with peers who do not have disabilities.
Rebecca Morrison and Nikki Kerns, along with three families of children with ASD, founded the Children’s Center for Developmental Enrichment (CCDE) in 1999. CCDE’s goal was to develop an educational model based on the inclusion of students with ASD and their typically developing peers.
CCDE opened its doors to students in 2000, and opened Oakstone Academy, named for the street on which the first building was located, in 2002. This year, Oakstone Academy graduated its seventh senior class.
The process of starting a school from scratch, especially one based on a new education model, is no easy task. The education model Oakstone uses is called Social Immersion.
“It is based on the idea that children with ASD have a social disorder, and therefore need to be educated in age-typical settings,” says Morrison.
Photo courtesy of Oakstone Academy
She further explains that traditional special education tends to separate children with ASD in order to “fix” their deficits that will hopefully, someday allow them to be included in a typical environment.
Social Immersion classrooms consist of 18-20 children, two teachers and an assistant. Usually, seven or eight of the students in a classroom have ASD. Students can apply for enrollment in Oakstone Academy as early as preschool, and the school touts that about 80 percent of the students who begin there as preschoolers thrive in the Social Immersion model.
Oakstone Academy draws students from all over the Columbus area – 18 local school districts in the 2016-17 school year – with some traveling from as far as Marysville, Newark and Mt. Gilead on a daily basis. There are even families moving to central Ohio from across the U.S. to attend the school.
“This past year, we had families moving to Columbus from all over the country to enroll their children in Oakstone Academy, including North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Texas and California,” Morrison says.
Oakstone Academy refers to its neurotypical students without ASD as “peers,” and this group of students is an important part of the school’s success.
“To my delight, the biggest surprise (to me) continues to be how much our neurotypical children love their school,” says Morrison. “Although I only planned to go through the sixth grade, our peers were the ones that demanded we provide middle school and, eventually, high school.”
This past year, Oakstone Academy served 550 children across all grades, and 280 of those children have ASD. Students at Oakstone have many opportunities available to them through the school. Morrison says students “consistently point to the qualified, nurturing teachers and being able to be involved in multiple extracurricular activities as the reasons they love Oakstone Academy.”
Photo courtesy of Oakstone Academy
Starting in fifth grade, students may participate in theater, and boys’ basketball and girls’ volleyball are available beginning in sixth grade in addition to clubs for ultimate Frisbee, running and bowling. High school boys and girls may run cross country and join the swim team, and the boys can also choose basketball, while girls can play volleyball or cheerlead.
Oakstone Academy is also very focused on character education and student leadership as principles of the Social Immersion model, and there are programs that students can participate in beginning in middle school to help further themselves in these areas.
“In this program, we ask our students to take ownership of their school,” says Morrison. “Last year, this group of (36 middle and high school) students collectively volunteered over 8,000 hours to improve their school.”
Photo courtesy of Oakstone Academy
Photo courtesy of Oakstone Academy
Photo courtesy of Oakstone Academy
Photo courtesy of Oakstone Academy
Morrison also cites the city of Westerville as an integral part of Oakstone Academy’s success because of the way the community has embraced the school.
“Our move to Westerville in 2007 was a win for our school,” she says. “The police officers and firemen are the best, bar none. We’ve collaborated with the Westerville Police Department as our students get older to develop safer interactions between police and individuals with ASD.”
As the school continues to see success and growth, Morrison is actually looking at the school shrinking as the ultimate achievement.
“Overall success would find Oakstone Academy becoming smaller as public schools replicate the Social Immersion model within their districts,” she says.
A heightened acceptance of ASD as a social disorder, not a cognitive one, is an important tenet of this goal, and Morrison and the school want alumni to have college and vocational careers so the community sees them demonstrating leadership and integrity. She hopes the alumni will return one day to proudly support their alma mater.
To learn more about Oakstone Academy, visit the school’s website at www.ccde.org. The 2017-18 school year begins Aug. 21.
Bob Valasek is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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