Rancho Cucamonga, CA: School opened for "severe" needs kids-'a lot ...are non-verbal'

Sept 30, 2017, Rancho Cucamonga (CA) Daily Bulletin: Yorba Linda school for severe special needs students opens Ontario campus http://www.dailybulletin.com/2017/09/30/yorba-linda-school-for-profoundly-handicapped-students-opens-ontario-campus/ California’s disabled students can get help at their neighborhood schools, a different campus in the district or at a county-run school. And when things are really challenging, there’s Port View Preparatory. The prep school and others like it offer education services to special needs students with profound challenges that districts and counties are unable to provide.... Almost all of Port View’s students have serious communication deficits, she said. “A lot of our students are non-verbal,” Tomaino said. “Out of that lack of communication results a variety of behavioral challenges — including aggression, self-injury behavior, property destruction — that we also have to tackle.” And unlike other schools of this sort, Port View doesn’t physically restrain its students or lock them in isolation “time out” rooms. It uses positive reinforcement to change behaviors over time. Along the way, that’s led to teachers’ clothes being torn and, in at least one case, an aide’s nose being broken. ... “You have to be honest with yourself: Can you do this? Because lives are on the line,” said founder Edward Miguel. “In this field, it’s for better or for worse. There’s no in between.” The pair opened their Yorba Linda campus in 2014, and their Ontario campus May 1, 2017. Between the two campuses, Port View contracts with 30 school districts in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, teaching 110 students.