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Bridges Academic Program

At a Community Day School, students are required to attend 360 minutes per day as part of a comprehensive academic program.   Bridges serves as an alternative educational setting for all the High Schools within Capistrano Unified School District. 
 
Bridges serves a unique special education student population. The classes have a specialized therapeutic setting for high school students with severe emotional disabilities and various other special education qualifying disabilities.The program has been developed in collaboration with Orange County Mental Health and works with many community support programs. Bridges Community Day School serves from 10-20 students, depending on enrollment throughout the school year.
 
The program staff includes a school principal, school psychologist, school secretary, campus proctor, Education Specialist and Paraeducators. The school day is from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. Bridges School offers a comprehensive curriculum providing credit toward graduation.  The staff at Bridges wants to provide the best educational opportunities possible for all the students, and feels the most important learning activities take place in the classroom.
 
In order to have an environment appropriate to this commitment and to enable all staff to effectively provide a sounds education for students, a certain standard of behavior is expected from all students.  Keep in mind that the purpose of the rules on a school campus is to assure students of the opportunity to obtain an education within a safe, supportive environment.  Everyone including parents, students, and staff must be willing to accept responsibility for promoting order and safety in school. 
 
Bridges Community Day School is developed with a foundation of a positive reinforcement schedule to motivate and support appropriate behaviors.  It is believed that positive reinforcement is more effective than punishment and/or other forms of behavior management.
 
Our staff provides a nurturing environment with individualized instruction in the least restrictive environment based upon appropriate skill level, current status in meeting graduation requirements with evaluation of a student’s respective learning styles and interests.
 
Our staff wants to provide the best educational opportunities possible for all students and feels the most important learning activities take place in the classroom.