he mission of CCSS is to provide our students with a fresh start in a safe environment, where each child feels valued. Our goal is to help students achieve greatness in all aspects of their lives by providing them with needed academic, behavioral, and socio-emotional skills such as self-advocacy, resilience, and empathy. We will do this by providing student-driven programming, strengthening communication with all stakeholders, and empowering every member of the CCSS Family.

CHESAPEAKE CENTER FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

Chesapeake Center for Student Success (CCSS) was founded in 1971 under its previous name of the Chesapeake Alternative School (CAS). With a change in the students served and the academic programming came the desire for a name change. CCSS provides a highly structured learning environment and offers a variety of positive-based interventions and materials that meet the individual needs of the student. We maintain clearly defined limits and consistently enforced consequences for inappropriate behavior. Using behavior modification and positive reinforcements, CCSS offers a program designed to create a positive school climate for the student. We follow the same curriculum standards and pacing guides as all other Chesapeake Public Schools with emphasis on individualization and small group instruction. At CCSS, we want students to acquire both academic and behavioral skills to ensure that they will be the best version of themselves that they can be, upon return to their home school.

CCSS offers students who have previously experienced difficulties in the traditional school setting, a clean slate on a new path that will lead to success in the home school. Our hope is students will not only recognize their way of handling thing in the past did not help with outcomes but with a new skill-set, a positive attitude, and a desire to show others their best self, they now have the power in their heads and hands to determine the path that their feet will take. They have been empowered with skills and a look at the possibilities that their future could have as they move beyond the classroom to adult life with the ability to advocate for themselves in an appropriate manner.

CCSS offers each student the opportunity to acquire the academic and social skills necessary for him or her to return to their homeschool successfully. CCSS implements the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework to support the growth of each student. The PBIS framework develops a positive, predictable, and safe environment for students to learn empathy, impulse control, and problem-solving skills. PBIS implementation involves explicit prompting, modeling, practicing, and encouraging positive social skills across all facets of the school setting. CCSS also uses a social-emotional curriculum to assist students and staff members to understand how to identify as well as address trauma. The ReThink Ed program provides an on-line platform which students work through module-based activities. This program provides cutting-edge strategies which support effective, high-quality education of the whole child.

In 2019, CCSS was redesigned to accommodate the needs of high school-aged students. CCSS is divided into a day program that serves middle school students (Grades 6-8) and an evening program that serves high school students (Grades 9-12). The program expanded to include Grades 9-12 with the hope of minimizing the drop-out rate by providing alternative pathways for students to graduate. CCSS proudly assisted 9 seniors to graduate as members of the Class of 2020.