Lighthouse
Education Center continually develops an educational program to meet the needs
of students throughout Berrien County who have been educationally diagnosed
with an Emotional Impairment and have failed to be successful in a public
school setting. An Emotional Impairment is a condition exhibiting one or more
of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked
degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
(A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or
health factors.
(B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships
with peers and teachers.
(C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
(D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
(E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal
or school problems.
At the core of the Lighthouse Education Center program is Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI). The purpose of the TCI system is to provide a crisis prevention and intervention model for schools that will assist in:
Preventing crises from occurring, de-escalating potential crises, effectively managing acute crises, reducing potential and actual injury to children and staff, learning constructive ways to handle stressful situations, and developing a learning circle within the school.
What kind of help and how it is given makes a crucial difference between the student's ability to learn from the experience or being set back from the experience. The Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) training program for students and staff presents a crisis prevention and intervention model designed to teach staff how to help students learn constructive ways to handle crisis.
The ability of the entire school to respond effectively to students in crisis situations is critical in establishing not only a safe environment, but also one that promotes growth and development. The skills, knowledge, and
professional judgment of staff in responding to crises are critical factors in helping students learn constructive and adaptive ways to deal with frustration, failure, anger, rejection, hurt, and depression.
Therapeutic Crisis
Intervention is a program that provides staff the tools to diffuse volatile
situations through a series of steps that would prevent physical restraint.
Physical restraint is always a last resort option when interacting with
students who are experiencing crisis.
The staff of Lighthouse
Education Center prides themselves on developing a caring and supportive
program for our students.