A diverse student body in a welcoming school
COOK Education Center enrolls up to 150 elementary and secondary students, with mild to severe learning disabilities and mild to severe problem behaviors. The disabilities of our students span nearly the full spectrum of special education eligibility.

Autism • Asperger Syndrome • Down Syndrome • ADD/ADHD • Learning Disabilities • Medical disorders • Developmental Disabilities • Behavior & Emotional Disabilities • Traumatic Brain Injury • Hearing Impaired • Multiple Disabilities

Evidence-based instruction is essential
Our students require explicit instruction in small-groups with occasional one-to-one learning opportunities in order to make significant progress. Learning to mastery often requires that our students are shown how to perform tasks or solve problems and it also requires that they are provided many opportunities to practice with lots of positive reinforcement for effort and improvement.

Self-management and self-control
It is also common for our students to require specific instruction in how to organize themselves and their study space, and they often must be taught to interact appropriately with their peers and with their teachers. Some require intensive Behavior Intervention Plans implemented by highly trained personnel in order to consistently display socially appropriate behavior.

A “Catch ‘em being good” school
COOK Education Center is a highly structured, Positive Behavior Intervention and Support school. We teach our students how to do the right thing and we frequently catch them doing the right thing and praise them for it. It is common for our students to come to enjoy school, to make good progress, and to make good friends for the first time.

A “zero-tolerance” school
COOK Education Center is a “zero tolerance” school. We do not enroll students who have been expelled for weapons or drug possession. We do not enroll students who are known to commit sexual assault, animal cruelty, or fire setting.

On October 1, 2008, COOK Education Center had a total of 112 students enrolled and, during the year, the school had a net gain of seven students, so the average daily enrollment during the year was 116 students.  The chart below shows the composition of the student body on October 1 by age and gender.  As has been true for a number of years, COOK Education Center served a much larger number of boys (90) than girls (21) during the 2008-2009 school year.

The next chart shows the distribution of students by special education qualifying criteria.  Fifty-nine students (53%) enrolled in COOK Education Center on October 1, 2008, obtained eligibility for special education and related services under the category of Autism.  An additional 19 students (17%) obtained eligibility as Severely Emotionally Disturbed and 17 students (14%) obtained eligibility as Other Health Impaired.

Attendance
The next chart shows an analysis of enrollment and attendance by month for the 2008-2009 school year. While the enrollment in COOK Education Center gradually increased over months of the school year, student attendance remained almost constant at just over 94 percent with modest dips in the months of February and July and a modest increase in January.

There are so many ways that students attending COOK Education Center are successful. Some obtain a high school diploma and begin attending college when no one thought that was possible. Some become charming when they were on a very negative trajectory. Many come to love school for the first time. Some develop positive friendships that just might be life long. Some develop the skills necessary for a successful transition to a job and independent living. Some learn how to be positive to their lifelong caregivers. Here are just three of our most recent success stories.

Jesse
Jesse is one of our truly successful students initially enrolled in the COOK Education Center as a kindergartner. It was not that he had noticeable learning disabilities, but, rather, his problem behaviors were frequent and intense. They included terrible tantrums that could last for a long time. He also displayed a nearly complete inability to learn or play with others. Just after enrolling, he proved to be a huge challenge for our Foundation’s team. However, after a little more than one year, his tantrums had disappeared altogether and he had acquired substantially more appropriate student behaviors, including reliably following teacher directions and remaining engaged in his classes for extended periods of time. He also was able to learn basic academic skills with small-group instruction and he came to play regularly with his classmates. Because of his growth, he was transitioned to TIEE’s Mt. Helix Academy where he began as an AIM HIGH student. Now, as a third grader, Jesse is enrolled full time at Mt. Helix Academy and his teachers report that he is “making friends and doing well.”
His mom recently wrote: “I hope you know how much of an impact your program has brought to Jesse’s 8-year-old life! He is blossoming and it’s because of your team.”

Jenny
Jenny, a now former COOK Education Center student, was referred by her school district because she had been displaying highly disruptive behavior in her public school classroom and she frequently refused to complete school assignments. She is one of our many super success stories, because only one-and-a-half years after enrolling in the COOK Secondary Program, she was already working at grade level in all of her classes and she was accumulating credits towards her high school diploma. Because her problem behaviors had been replaced by consistently positive behavior, her IEP team was motivated to enroll her in classes at one of her school district’s high schools for the 2009 fall semester. In fact, we have learned that Jenny has been fully enrolled in a public high school and will be taking regular education classes with a minimum of support from resource personnel. While at COOK Education Center, Jenny also acquired a fine bass guitar repertoire and she composed her own music. She performed one of her pieces to an adoring audience at the Talent Show in spring. We hope that she continues to grow musically as well as academically and socially while attending her new high school.

John
Another successful COOK Education Center student is John, who was fifteen years old when he first enrolled in the Secondary Program. John was a diploma bound student but he risked getting enough credits to graduate because he frequently slept through most of the school day and he out rightly refused to complete his assignments. He also had great difficulty making friends, often lashing out at his peers for reasons that seemed trivial. By age eighteen, however, John had acquired positive social skills and had developed several friendships. Problem behaviors with peers had disappeared. John also had acquired appropriate classroom and student behaviors and he successfully completed classes towards his diploma, but he had not yet obtained sufficient credits to graduate. Consequently, John transitioned to TIEE’s Urban Skills Center, where he continued taking courses towards graduation. Highly motivated to complete his high school career successfully, John also enrolled himself in Grossmont Community College to complete additional credits. To John’s great advantage, he arranged for two separate trips with the People to People organization. The first gave him experience in New Zealand and Australia. He so impressed the TIEE Board of Directors that they awarded him partial financial aid to go on his second People to People trip. This one was to Europe. On returning, he delivered an engaging presentation to the members of TIEE’s Board at one of their regularly scheduled meetings. John successfully graduated with a high school diploma in 2008, and is currently taking courses at Mesa College.

If you work for any length of time with individuals with developmental disabilities, communication disabilities, Autism, or any of the types of disabilities of the students we at the COOK Education Center have taught for years, you will come in contact with many families whose strength of commitment to the education, welfare, pleasure, and safety of their children is awe inspiring. We know many such families and we believe they are deserving of high praise for the level of their 24/7 commitment. In our very small way, we take this section of our website to feature one of our families at a time.

William’s mom writes:  ”William first enrolled in TIEE’s Children’s Workshop and has subsequently transitioned to the Foundations program of the COOK Education Center. Because of his physical problems, William attends school each day with his own nurse. We are proud to have William’s mother tell his story.

My son’s attendance at TIEE was the best decision we have ever made for him. When William started at TIEE at age seven, he had both VATERS Syndrome and significant developmental delays as well as being non-verbal.

We never dreamed that William would one day be able to not only speak, but would also be reading, doing simple math and attending his individual classes independently.

We cannot thank TIEE’s wonderful staff enough for their unending patience, enthusiasm and passion for their work with all of the children and especially with William.

It has changed William’s life and our family’s life for the better and for this we will be eternally grateful.”