We are more than a school, we are a community and a guiding light.
The Harbor School opened its doors for the first time in September of 1968. The school was opened to provide services for students with special needs in Monmouth, Middlesex, Ocean, and Mercer counties. We serve children who range in age from five to twenty-one.
The students have various classifications which include but are not limited to: Auditorally Impaired, Autistic, Communication Impaired, Cognitively Impaired, Multiply Disabled, Other Health Impaired, Specific Learning Disability, and Traumatic Brain Injury.
The school seeks to empower each student with skills for life, work and recreation, believing that every individual possesses the dignity and potential to contribute to a better world.
Amy Brandon – Principal, Harbor School
Harbor School is an Approved Private School for Students with Disabilities with the New Jersey Department of Education, providing an enhanced alternative program to the public school districts for students with disabilities. The program’s goals are to meet the academic, functional, social, behavioral, and transition needs of the most challenging students. Our school environment is warm, nurturing, and supportive, with small student-to-staff ratios that provide optimal learning for each student.
Our extensive related service team provides individual and group services based on the goals outlined in a student’s Individualized Education Plan. These supports are delivered by several experts in their field that include speech language-pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists. A school social worker is also available to provide individual or group counseling sessions, as well as offer support and resources to our families. In collaboration with our school social worker, a school counselor enhances our program by providing social skills lessons that focus on developing social-emotional learning. Whether visiting classrooms for an interactive lesson or seeing students individually, the school counselor is someone all the students recognize. Furthermore, in partnership with University Behavioral Health Care, students have access to a clinician who works alongside a psychiatrist to balance the school-home connection and ensure continuity for students who need behavioral and/or mental health support.
The mission of Harbor School is to provide a safe and nurturing educational environment dedicated to the vision that individuals with disabling conditions are entitled to a full and meaningful life. The school seeks to empower each student with skills for life, work, and recreation, believing that every individual possesses the dignity and potential to contribute to a better world.
