Bridgeway Academy Training Initiatives

September 19, 2016

Bridgeway Academy began the 2016-17 academic year with 150 highly-trained and educated full-time staff members – classroom teachers, supervisors, music, occupational, physical and speech therapists, psychologists – and the administrative personnel necessary to support the growing needs of Bridgeway Academy’s staff and families. To ensure the educational and therapeutic staff members are following the latest evidence-based principles, Bridgeway Academy provides trainings and professional development for its employees throughout the year.

Jenn Schneider, BCaBA, recently took on the role as Training Coordinator at Bridgeway Academy. Among her numerous other responsibilities, she collaborates with the many specialists at Bridgeway Academy to develop a thorough and effective internal training program to help staff better promote student growth and consistency of service delivery. Jenn recently shared some training data that illustrates Bridgeway Academy’s commitment to maintaining a highly trained staff in order to support its mission to meet the educational and therapeutic needs of children with autism and other developmental disabilities.

• During the week prior to the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year, returning Bridgeway Academy staff participated in an average of 18-hours of training in areas such as applied behavior analysis, crisis intervention, reinforcement, ethics, discrete trial instruction, assessment tools such as AFLS/VB-MAPP/common core, communicable diseases and emergency response procedures.
• Staff new to Bridgeway Academy participated in an average of 14 hours of training in areas such as applied behavior analysis, crisis intervention, mandated reporting professionalism, reinforcement, ethics, discrete trial instruction, assessment tools such as AFLS/VB-MAPP/common core and emergency response procedures.
• New staff, within their first 90 days of employment, will also complete an additional 6 hours of training in subjects including: teaching techniques, preference assessments, classroom structure and support, data collection and advanced applied behavior analysis.
• Bridgeway Academy receives oversight for its program from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. ODJFS requires non-certified staff to receive 45-hours of training within their first three years of employment. Certified staff participates in an average of 25 hours of training per year to ensure efficacy with the evidence-based principles utilized at Bridgeway Academy.

Bridgeway Academy’s Continuing Education committee is made of up staff members who are tasked with offering monthly trainings in subjects of particular interest including but not limited to: IEPs and ETRs, Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP) and Lesson Planning and Curriculum.

• Bridgeway Academy has a goal to ensure that all of its students reach their highest potential and knows that having a highly-trained and experienced staff is one of the ways this goal will be accomplished. Today, the organization has on staff: thirty (30) music, occupational, physical and speech therapists; two (2) psychologists ; six (6) Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA); two (2) Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBA); thirteen (13) Registered Behavior Technicians; and six (6) staff members with a Doctoral Agree and above; thirty-nine (39) staff members with a Graduate Degree.
• Currently, Bridgeway Academy has five staff members undergoing supervised fieldwork towards board certification as a behavior analyst; three staff members eligible to sit for their board examination as a behavior analyst; and, one staff member working towards board certification as an assistant behavior analyst.

To learn more about Bridgeway Academy and all of its programs visit http://www.bridgewayohio.org.