Who Are We?

Rutland Psychoeducational Services is an agency that serves severely emotionally behaviorally disordered students in the public schools of northeast Georgia. Students are served from the following systems: Barrow, Commerce City, Clarke, Elbert, Jackson, Jefferson City, Madison, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Social Circle City, and Walton.

Links: Georgia Psychoed Network

Our Mission

To provide a therapeutic, educational environment which encourages and nurtures student’s social and emotional growth; enabling them to reach their highest level of capability in the least restrictive environment and to become productive and contributing members of society.

Rutland History

Rutland Psychoeducational Services, the prototype for the 24 programs in Georgia, began in the late 1960’s by Dr. Mary M. Wood. At that time, the only treatment programs available were state or private residential facilities. The Developmental Therapy Model was developed as an alternative method to serve children anad keep the child in his/her family and community.

The Rutland Center began as a training site for practicum students. A 1970 demonstration project was funded by Mental Health and Education for the Handicapped, as well as the Georgia State Department of Education. As the model expanded to serve surrounding counties through outpost services, it encouraged the establishment of the statewide Georgia Psychoeducational Network and is presently a national dissemination model.

The RAP (Rutland Adolescent Program) was created in 1979 for students between the ages of 15 and 21 and uses cognitive behavior therapy.

Psychoeducational Network Profile

The Georgia Psychoeducational Network provides comprehensive special educational services for students with severe emotional and behavioral disorders (SEBD), ages birth through 21 years. Each of the 24 Psychoeducational programs in the network provides a full range of services for these children: evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. Each program is a cooperative effort among a team of psychologists, psychiatrists, educators, social workers, parents and others. Each program provides community-based services for many students who otherwise might be institutionalized. The network reaches geographically distant counties by a series of outpost classes.

Each program has a director, psychologists, social workers, licensed paraprofessionals, and special education teachers who are Georgia certified to work with behavior disordered youngsters.

SEBD youngsters come from a wide range of economic backgrounds, lifestyles, and intellectual abilities. What makes them unique is that their emotional problems are so severe that daily functioning progress at home, school and in the community is prohibited.

• Established in 1970
• Funded by the Georgia General Assembly
• Multi-Disciplinary Approach
• Parent, school, agency involvement
• Cost effective alternative to residential placement.

How Does a Student Get to Rutland?

Because Rutland is part of the public school system, the first step is to talk with the special education director in your county about a referral to Rutland. Private schools can also refer students to Rutland. Special Education Directors must approve every Rutland referral. Listed below are the telephone numbers for each system:

When a child is referred, psychologists, social workers, teachers and consulting psychiatrists begin their investigation into the student’s problems, reasons for them and possible solutions and services. A family/parent conference is held to gather information and the child is tested to evaluate the child’s social/emotion, intellectual and academic functioning.

All information from the evaluation, home and other sources is used to determine whether the child has a severe emotional disorder. If the child is eligible for Rutland services, he/she is then placed in a class either at the main center in Athens or an outpost class in their county.

Classrooms

We have eight elementary classrooms, 4 middle school and 5 high school classrooms at the main center in Athens. Each classroom is staffed with a certified teacher and 1-2 paraprofessionals. Each child is served through his/her IEP (Individual Education Plan).

• In order to enhance the education and treatment/therapy of students Rutland provides:
• Each classroom with one computer connected to the Internet
• Media Center staffed by certified media specialist
• Music Therapy staffed by certified music therapist
• Art Therapy staffed by certified art therapist

RAP Program

In order to help our student’s social/emotional problems, RAP uses a therapeutic model called Rational Emotive Therapy (RET). In addition to academics, we also address the emotional component of our students’ learning problems through the use of individual and group therapy, social skills training, moral development, and anger regression therapy. In order to meet the specialized needs of some of the students we serve, we have also developed two additional components that exist outside of the traditional RAP classes. These are ROTE and Community Based Instruction.

ROTE:

Rutland Outdoor Therapeutic Experience was started in 1989. This program is designed to assist those students who cannot benefit from placement in RAP and whose self-esteem progress may be impeded by a traditional academic focus. A sense of community based on life skills, learning opportunities emphasizing active, structured, and practical educational experience is the foundations for the ROTE approach. The ROTE setting allows a student to develop an understanding of his personal identity and life direction through real life, vocational experiences.

COMMUNITY BASED INSTRUCTION:

This class uses traditional group and individual therapy enhanced by interactive community instruction which emphasizes practical life management and community social skills. This program is designed for students who have been unsuccessful in a typical RAP or academic program and who could benefit by a more “hands-on” approach to learning.