Indy School provides specialized teaching services, job training for children with behavioral and learning disabilities – WISH-TV | Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Damar Charter Academy was Indiana’s first public school specifically designed to serve the needs of children with developmental, intellectual, and behavioral disabilities since 2011.

Superintendent Jim Dalton told News 8 that there are nearly 200 students enrolled.

Dalton said children are getting the support and help they need because most students don’t succeed in any other school due to behavioral challenges.

Enrollment is not limited to families in central Indiana. Some go as far as Muncie, Bloomington and Richmond, Indiana.

Students may learn the standard curriculum, but each student has an individual education plan based on their disability.

They can even take on-the-job training as the Damar Charter Institute has a lumberyard to build, weld and build.

Student Caleb Disney said he attended Mooresville High School, but found Damar Charter Institute more appropriate. Disney says he wants to be an auto mechanic at his father’s shop after graduation.

Disney said: “It was a good school because I enjoyed meeting all my friends.

Dalton added, “What they found was that in those local communities, even though they were great schools, they weren’t able to meet the needs of their children. They have established Damar Academy and we can help them facilitate it. It’s a real value in their life, a really needed resource for the community. “

Students can receive a certificate of course completion.