Mission and Philosophy

The Midland School Mission

The Midland School is a comprehensive special education program serving the individual social, emotional, academic, and career education needs of children with developmental disabilities. Its mission is to provide quality programs to enable its students to reach their highest level of achievement and independence allowing them to become contributing members of their communities.

It is the goal of the Midland School to carry on its educational program with emphasis on service to individuals or groups in the following order of importance:

The Children – Each child participates in an individualized program specifically designed and constituted to promote optimal growth and development.

The Family – The school conducts educational programs and programs of individual and group counseling for families to aid them in understanding and helping their child to develop to the greatest possible degree.

The Staff – It is the policy of the school to aid the staff in every way possible to achieve maximum results with respect to each student.

Other Professional Individuals and Agencies – To whatever degree possible, the school lends its knowledge and resources to other individuals and agencies in the same or similar fields of endeavor.

The Midland Philosophy

The philosophy of the school is to facilitate the growth and development of each student in the most effective way. The student’s abilities and needs are at the center of all programming decisions.
The program remains flexible and adaptable to the maximum extent possible so that individuals are able to reach their highest level of overall achievement and independence.

All programs and interactions are designed to be positive and proactive. Students are treated as valued, important, unique individuals.

Integral to the Midland philosophy is the limited physical size of the classroom. It is believed that our students respond favorably with teachers in close proximity to the students at all times.

In addition to traditional service models, speech therapy, occupational therapy, counseling and social skills instruction are integrated into the classroom settings as often as possible. This allows the students to practice specific skills, within a relevant context while receiving direction and reinforcement.

Midland’s curriculum stresses a multi-sensory approach to learning. We recognize that our students vary in the learning style that is most effective for each of them; therefore, our program attempts to address their individual needs.