For Christy’s son Aden, the behavior issues started in kindergarten.  “He would throw tables, chairs, knock stuff off the desk. He was out of control,” she said.

The behavior continued into the first grade, where he was suspended and removed several times from the school bus.

Aden’s teacher worked with school leaders to put him on an Individualized Education Program plan (IEP) to address his unique barriers to learning. Through the Community Partnership School ™ model, Aden started seeing a Children’s Home Society of Florida counselor, and Community Partnership School Director Alexius Ferguson matched Aden up with a mentor.

“We connected the dots when the dots needed to be connected and got Aden some of the services he needed.” said Ferguson

Those connected dots started to change Aden’s behavior at school. The calls from school stopped. Aden now uses the coping skills he learned in counseling to calm himself down and ask the teacher if he can take a time out.

Aden is now in the 3rd grade at The Webster School and everyone can see a positive difference. He almost made A/B Honor Roll this year, and his teacher thinks Aden no longer needs an IEP to succeed in the classroom.

Christy doesn’t know where Aden would be without the help from Ferguson and the school team.

“We would have been pretty defeated,” she said. “It took a team of people to come in and sit down with him and make him see, aside from his mom, that people care.”

At The Webster School, programs and services available to students build on daily classroom learning. The Webster School is a partnership among Children’s Home Society of Florida, Flagler Health, St. John’s River State College and St. John’s School District. Questions? Want to get involved? Contact Alexius Ferguson, Community Partnership School Director.