The Lourie Center School
At the Lourie Center School in Rockville, your child can learn and make friends in a welcoming environment where they have support to do their best. The school offers special education and ongoing therapeutic services to children between ages 4 and 12 with disabilities.
Curriculum & Services
During an 11-month school year, your child receives classroom-based academic instruction and special education programming that align with Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards. Depending on their unique needs, your child may also receive:
- Mental health care, including individual therapy and play therapy
- Occupational and sensory integrative therapy
- Physical therapy
- Speech and language therapy
- Small group socialization
- Psychiatric consultation as needed
Conditions in Children
If emotional, behavioral or developmental difficulties make it hard for your child to learn in other classroom settings, turn to the Lourie Center. Your child may benefit from our services if they have:
- Aggressive or other disruptive behaviors
- Attachment problems or separation anxiety
- Attention deficit disorder (ADD)/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Autism spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome
- Developmental delays
- Extreme shyness or fearfulness
- Mood disorders, such as depression or anxiety
- Oppositional defiance disorder (ODD)
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Relationship problems with peers, family or adults
- Self-regulation disorders
How Your Child Benefits
The Lourie Center School is the only school for special needs students that follows an attachment approach. This means we focus on helping your child build safe, healthy and trusting relationships with teachers and peers. This environment allows your child to:
- Develop motor skills
- Follow structure and routine
- Improve self-esteem
- Learn and grow intellectually and emotionally
- Strengthen social and communication skills
Individualized Attention
Trust that your loved one will receive education and therapy services tailored to their unique needs. Your child’s class size can include up to eight students in a classroom, with a minimum of one adult per three children. Maximum school enrollment is 50 children.
Ongoing Communication
Gain insight into your child’s progress from their teachers and health care providers. Count on our staff to:
- Communicate and collaborate with you regularly about your child’s development
- Answer questions and listen to concerns
- Recommend strategies and activities to do with your child at home to help them build skills
You and the staff who work with your child can send each other written messages through a notebook that goes home daily. Take advantage of the opportunity to see how your child acts in school thanks to a one-way classroom observation mirror.
Parent Notification & Transportation
During the school day, staff will call you to pick up your child only if your child is ill. We do not ask parents to pick up their child if the child is disruptive or aggressive. But if your child’s behavior is too unsafe for them to ride the bus, you may need to drop off and pick up your child before and after school.
Program Schedule
The Lourie Center School is open August through July. Classes are held:
- Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Caring & Friendly Staff
Expect our experienced staff to work closely with you, public school personnel and your child’s other health care providers as needed to develop individualized goals, determine progress and plan an ongoing program for your child. All staff have licenses and certification to work in the state of Maryland.
To give your child the most well-rounded educational experience possible, our staff includes:
- Special education teachers
- Certified social workers
- Occupational therapist
- Physical therapist
- Speech and language pathologist
- Consulting psychiatrist
- Psychologist
- Family therapist
About the School
Established in 1983, the Lourie Center School is a nonpublic elementary day school approved by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and the District of Columbia’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to serve students with disabilities. Most students live in:
- Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland
- Arlington and Fairfax Counties in Virginia
- Washington, D.C.
