Special Education School
Thanks to the many generous donors and a unique partnership between the state of Illinois and the city of Elgin, the Larkin Center opened a state-of-the-art special education school at 515 Sports Way Dr. in 2002. This accredited, non-public school combines a structured environment with therapeutic services. The Larkin Center School teaches primary to secondary age children who suffer from emotional, behavioral and learning challenges. School districts find it increasingly difficult to educate children with these problems; therefore, Larkin is receiving an ever-increasing number of referrals by local school districts. A total of ten classrooms are available to teach a capacity of 81 students. Over 70 percent of these students live with their families in communities in the counties of Cook, DeKalb, Lake, DuPage, Kane and McHenry, Illinois. The remaining students are abused or neglected children who live in one of Larkin Center’s six group homes in Elgin.
Our program is one of the only not-for-profit programs of its kind in this region of Illinois. Larkin’s school served thirty school districts during Fiscal Year 2008 throughout the Chicagoland area and Fox Valley region. Each of the ten classrooms has fewer than nine students with a wide variety of academic levels and abilities. Each student receives 5.5 hours of instruction daily. Instructional time includes Dialectical Behavioral Therapy or DBT, Aggression Replacement Therapy or ART, and music therapy. Individual and group therapy help students develop positive problem resolution skills. The Larkin Center Education Program’s mission is to nurture and challenge students with special needs who have not been successful in their previous school experiences so they may fully participation in school, family and society.
©2005 The Larkin Center, All Rights Reserved.
Site Funded By: SBC Foundation
Accredited by: The Council on Accreditation on Services for Families and Children, Inc. and The Commission on Schools of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Member Agency Of: The Child Wefare League of America, United Way of Elgin and IL Childcare Association.