7. District 4
District 4 extends from East 96th Street and Second Avenue to the East 125th Street and the Harlem River. There are two schools included in the ASD Nest Program PS 112 and MS/PS 206. PS 112 or Jose Celso Barbosa school is one of the first schools in New York City to implement ASD Nest Program. Each Nest classroom has two teachers trained in SDI (Social Development Intervention) and various instructional approaches used in the program. In addition to ASD Nest Program, Jose Celso Barbosa is one of four schools in New York City which offers Intensive Kindergarten (IK) Program designed for children with autism spectrum disorder. It is a one-year transitional program which places emphasis on social interactions, language, etc. Most students from this program continue with ASD Nest Program the following year. MS/PS 206 is the same type of school and it received the Pete and Carrie Rozelle Award from the National Center for Learning Disabilities. In addition to these two, District 4, the starting point of our list of best school districts in New York City for autism is home to New York Center for Autism Charter School which found it place on our list of 6 best NYC schools for children with autism. This school has small class sizes with an average of four students per classroom. Besides traditional classrooms they have “real-life” classrooms designed to look exactly like some of the places that the children encounter in everyday life. For example, bathroom is transformed in teaching bathroom where children learn how to brush their teeth, etc.
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