The Program at EBC

We believe that all children want to be successful. When kids aren’t their best at school, at home, or with friends, Esther B. Clark Schools (EBC) can help. While at EBC, kids make breakthroughs and learn about themselves. With an emphasis on trust and respect, EBC’s staff of expert educators and specialists works to instill healthy behavior and re-engage kids in school, in home and in life. —Chris Harris, Chief Schools Officer, CHC

EBC is a therapeutic day school. Students admitted into the program are able to access their grade level curriculum with accommodations when they are at emotional baseline.  Students are grouped according to age, social and educational needs.

Program Highlights

Here some of the highlights of our comprehensive, therapeutic program:

  • Six hour school days build academic skills in all subject areas
  • A highly structured, yet low stress positive behavior support and intervention system
  • Individual, group and family therapies
  • Maximum class size of 12 like-aged students staffed by a team of 4 professionals
    • A credentialed special education teacher
    • A licensed therapist
    • A trained behaviorist
    • A classroom assistant
  • This team creates a 1:3 staff to student ratio to ensure personalized attention and support throughout each day

For some children, their emotional challenges have blocked their learning ability. For other students, learning challenges have triggered emotional fear and doubt. EBC wants all its students to learn the necessary self-management and social awareness skills that will allow them to feel confident and competent about their ability to manage themselves appropriately through stressful situations.

A key component of the EBC program is that in addition to academic learning, EBC students engage in daily social emotional learning either through behavior skills training, social skills training or through their therapies. In these sessions, EBC students learn about themselves, about social relationships and about how to manage through stress-inducing demands. A critical component of this instruction is helping our students develop more accurate and positive perceptions of themselves, of how they perceive others and how they perceive their environment. Their misperceptions are oftentimes the catalysts for their emotional dysregulations. By teaching them how be more accurate in their perceptions, we help our students access their strong thinking and reasoning brains to problem solve. 

At EBC students will learn practical strategies to handle stress, control impulses and motivate themselves to persevere when challenging situations arise. In other words, to be more resilient.

When a child has those skills, no matter what life or school barrier is placed in front of them—completing projects on time, SAT tests, interpersonal conflicts, applying for a job, or dealing with a challenging relationship—they will have the ability to overcome and to succeed.  

For a more detailed program description, please contact us: 650.688.3634 for Palo Alto or 408.816.2018 to reach our South Bay location.