Welcome to The Rise School of Houston, the city’s first and only school dedicated to early education of infants, toddlers and pre-school children born with Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities in an integrated environment.
Our Unique Program
Rise serves youngsters ages six months to six years old with an intensive environment of early education and intervention provided to students year-round, five days a week, for six hours daily. In its unique, proven model of an “integrated environment”, Rise enrolls about 65% students with Down syndrome and other developmental differences and 35% traditional-learners, a blend which allows special needs youngsters to “model” after typically-developing peers. There is no preschool program like this anywhere in Houston besides Rise. A child who begins as an infant will receive 6,000 hours of instruction, intervention and therapy at Rise by the time he or she “graduates” at age six, and will be ready to succeed in mainstream kindergarten and life. The traditional learners benefit greatly with enhanced academic skills and a deep understanding and compassion for people with differences.
See us in Action
Please view our video to see Rise in action and get a glimpse of our very favorite day every year at Rise: Graduation for our Pre-K class.
We welcome members of the community, prospective families and volunteers to visit Rise in person to see our extraordinary program and learn how they can become involved.
Each year over 250 young people pursuing careers in pediatric healthcare and education visit Rise for observations and internships. If you are a student interested in an observation, click here.
Return on Investment:
Because 80% of language is established by age four, the preschool years are a critical period for intervention and therapy. Intense early intervention during the infant, toddler and preschool years can deliver lifelong benefits to children with special needs.
We believe that the MORE intervention we offer to children with developmental disabilities during their formative pre-school years means the LESS support they will require in adulthood and the more they will be able to contribute to society. The true benefit of a Rise early childhood education is success in K-12. Indeed, 99% of Rise graduates will enter mainstream kindergarten. We expect most to graduate high school, some to attend college, and most to become employable adult citizens.
The Rise School of Houston is a non-profit organization. We receive no government support. We are supported by gifts and grants from individuals, foundations and corporations, and from tuition. While all families pay tuition, Rise is the only private preschool in Houston with an extensive scholarship program – providing significant tuition discounts to two-thirds of enrolled families.
Currently, it is estimated that it costs about $24,000 per student to operate the Rise School of Houston annually. These costs are driven by our intensive program and low 3 to 1 student to teacher ratio. While this figure is imposing, we believe early investment during the pre-school years pays back many times over later in life in terms of decreased social and public services required by adults with disabilities.
To learn more about admissions, click here.
To learn more about our facility, click here.
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