OPTIONS Employment and Educational Services, LLC is a small private school located in Hartford, CT for students aged 14-22 with various disabilities that impact their opportunity to acquire an education through their normal, public school. It was founded in 2004 by Scott Wells and Elin Houseworth and has hosted around 230 students since opening.
Option’s students are taught based upon their individual needs. Options implements the curriculum of the students’ school district. Students are partners in their education while learning how they learn best and developing an understanding and plan for needed areas of improvement. Options students receive high school credits for work completed and graduate with their own town’s diploma. Each student’s educational plan is individualized to fit the student’s ability and needs. Options helps students improve on their strengths and weaknesses and, in collaboration with treatment providers, helps remidates symptoms or areas of challenge. If students are taking college classes, teachers can tutor them outside of class, or even, go with the student and sit in on the college lesson and help them with study skills, homework and understanding the material better.
Alongside the education aspect, students are also given a vocational counselor that takes them to job sites, like Auerfarm, where they are paid and gain experience in various fields that interest them. The counselors also help the students look for jobs outside of the school and get them prepared for society after leaving school. Additional services for students include individual, family, and group counseling.
Options and Auerfarm teamed up to give students the opportunity to work in the office and on the farm on various tasks to develop their career and build lifetime skills. Auerfarm offers a professional environment which gives these students the experience of what the real work world is like. So far Auerfarm has received help from over 10 students from Options since the start of the relationship in 2019. Students learn animal care, office administration, social media, data analysis as well as many other skills.