Morrison School in Bristol VA

Morrison School

What We Do:

Morrison School, also known as The Foundation for Educational and Developmental Opportunity, is a private, non-profit organization founded in 1977 for the purpose of providing remedial educational services to students ages 6 through 18, who have learning disabilities and/or attention deficits. Typically students have experienced significant academic failure and often serious personal/social difficulties in other school programs before coming to Morrison School. Without therapeutic intervention of the type offered through the Foundation's programs, this population is at high risk for school failure and dropout, personal and social dysfunction, and limited career opportunities and job success.

Certain priorities must be established before students with school-related and personal problems can successfully confront the complex obstacles to their success. Once the values and traits resulting from consistent adherence to these priorities are firmly in place, the process of overcoming obstacles becomes an accepted part of a rewarding lifelong journey. Students must always be treated with respect and be required to treat others with respect at all times.

A generous and compassionate nature must be fostered in students by the consistent modeling and rewarding of such behaviors by parents and teachers.

Self-confidence must be nurtured in students by the unwavering faith and esteem of their parents and teachers. In addition, self-confidence can only flourish when students are provided ample opportunities for success.

The first lesson taught must be the importance of integrity and personal responsibility.
The second lesson must be the importance of accepting and appreciating ourselves as we are, while always striving to be better.
The third lesson must be the essential role structure and organization play in success.
The fourth lesson must be the advantages of a positive disposition and steady temperament.
The fifth lesson must be the recognition of perseverance as a critical key to success.

Business Services:

A regular school year program benefiting students:
* with specific learning disabilities in reading, math, and/or written language
* suffering with attention deficits and personal problems that render them unable to easily acquire the study skills, work habits, personal behaviors, and social skills necessary for success in school, the community, and the workplace

The day school program includes:
* intensive small group and individualized remedial academic instruction
* individual and group counseling
* diagnostic testing
* parent education relative to problems of students

The program is two-pronged in its approach to remediation: Correction of academic skill deficits and correction of personal/social/behavioral problems that often accompany learning and attention disorders.

The ultimate goal of the day school is to prepare students, as quickly as possible, to return to and successfully compete in the mainstream of regular private or public school programs. Approximately 95% of these high-risk students earn high-school diplomas; approximately 75% go on to post-high school educational or vocational training programs.

Summer School Program
* five-week program held in July of each year
* program evaluates and remediates school-related problems of students who attend other schools

Summer School is vital for maintaining and strengthening the hard-earned skills of learning disabled and attention deficit disordered students who do not store and retrieve information adequately (forgetting much of what is learned during the school year).


Tutoring:
Morrison School offers remedial academic instruction on a part-time basis for students who have specific academic deficits and are enrolled in other school programs.


Psycho-educational Assessment:
These assessments of school-related problems for students enrolled in Morrison School, as well as other school programs, are performed by a licensed school psychologist.


Parent Consultation and Education:
Parent consultation and education focuses on the special academic needs of their children relative to the reading, written language, and math skills, homework, general study skills and work habits, personal habits and social skills.