TRAILS Program for At-Risk Students

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Trails Carolina A child skips school, gets drunk, and does not come home until he wants to. When he does go to school he is disrespectful to teachers, apathetic toward schoolwork, and has thoughts about dropping out. It is not uncommon for adolescents to struggle in their learning environment. Students may struggle in school for a variety of reasons, some of which include the immense stimuli in a classroom which leave many children distracted, emotionally distressing events which set a child on course for self-destruction, and peer groups which influence an adolescent to be unconcerned with school work. Trails presently offers their services to at risk youth and teens ranging from ages 10 to 17 and is currently registered by the state of North Carolina as a non-public school, a Therapeutic Facility, and a Mental Health Program (Struggling Teens). “TRAILS” is an acronym for Trust, Responsibility, Accountability, Integrity, Leadership, and Service. The goal of the program is to instill these values in the youth during their minimum 28-day stay at Trails. At Trails, each student must go through four phases to graduate. These phases are learning, growing, changing, and solidifying. Each phase is comprised of its own objectives and tasks that the student must complete before moving on to the next task. There are many programs in both wilderness therapy and alternative schools, which are for youth with a specified issue. Not all programs are designed for a specific issue, but many are. Figure 1 depicts the percentage of alternative schools, and programs for public school students, which are solely for a singular issue (nces.ed.gov). Trails is not exclusive, it is a program that accepts a wide array of students and issues. Their clinica... ... middle of paper ... ...t. “Blending traditional and non-traditional teaching strategies, we aim to reignite their intellectual and creative curiosity and to provide opportunities for academic success” (handbook thingy). In addition to providing children with the skills needed to succeed when they return to public school, Trails can help a student stay on track with their current “home-bound classwork” and even finish and receive credit for classes which were not completed prior to coming to Trails (Trails ). If a high school student is enrolled at Trails for a minimum of 50 days, he will earn a total of 3 high school credits and a transcript from The Academy at Trails Carolina. A student will receive 1.0 credit in Adventure Education (P.E.), 0.5 credits in Health and Wellness, 0.5 credits in Appalachian History, 0.5 credits in World Literature, and 0.5 credits in Earth Science (Trails).

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