Biographical Info

Areas We Address

A day school would engage with us if they are looking to enable students with disabilities, mental health challenges, and diverse learning needs to succeed at their school and participate meaningfully in Jewish life. We believe that a Jewish day school education should be an option for every child, regardless of academic and learning needs. We realize this vision by partnering with day schools to develop trainings that support the needs of educators, parents, administrators and, most importantly, students.

Expected Outcomes

Working with us, a school should expect to accomplish improved academic, social/emotional, and behavioral supports and outcomes for all students, especially those with disabilities and mental health needs. The day school will become a more inclusive place that welcomes all students. Teachers and administrators can expect robust support and training that will build their capacity to support all learners. Every school that works with Gateways can also expect to become part of a collaborative network of knowledgeable and dedicated educators who are eager to offer support. The day school will transform into a place where all students are successfully engaging with the curriculum and are active members of the school community.

Key Activities

We help schools achieve their goals by implementing professional development, coaching and consulting models of support. We mutually agree upon the goals of the professional learning opportunities and how schools are going to reach them. Gateways then builds a road map that will support educators, which leads schools to becoming adaptable and inclusive. We offer support in many areas, including:

• Inclusion (including system level and whole school change, MTSS, UDL, etc.)
• Social-Emotional and Mental Health Needs of Students
• Proactive Behavior Management
• Universal Design for Learning
• Individual and group coaching for teachers, and administrators
• Shiluv: Peer Disability Education Program: An innovative Jewish peer disability education program that empowers faculty, through a cohort-based model, to facilitate a unique curriculum (which includes experiential activities, literacy lessons, and speakers with disabilities) in their schools, fostering an inclusive mindset and appreciation of individual differences among all students.
• The B’Yadenyu Toolkit: effective, sustainable, and adaptable model for Jewish day school education that helps to increase access and inclusion
• Gateways Hebrew Decoding Program: a multi-sensory approach to Hebrew decoding designed to make the learning process accessible and intuitive for students with diverse abilities. Although designed specifically with the needs of students with language-based learning disabilities in mind, the curriculum is of value to all learners.
• Disability area-focused trainings, including:
  • Neurodivergence
  • Autism
  • ADHD
  • Dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities
• Differentiation and Curriculum Modification
  • In addition to PD sessions, Gateways offers consulting to individuals and small groups of educators focused on developing and modifying curriculums to ensure teaching practices meet the diverse needs of today’s learners. This support can include developing strategies focused on all pieces of the courses including curriculum mapping, modifying lesson plans, and reviewing tests/assessments.

Setting Expectations

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect our partner schools and communities to be open to change. Gateways is here to support this important, and often difficult work of changing long-held beliefs and systems in day schools. We expect that schools, leaders, teachers, students, and parents are committed to learning and increasing access to a quality Jewish education for all learners. We expect our partners to dive deep into the training and support and be open to change on the systems level in order to work towards sustainable, inclusive day schools. Finally, Gateways expect partners to prioritize this work from a budget perspective. We want all partners to invest in the resources it takes to implement change.

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect schools to choose a team to lead this important work, build in time to meet and train faculty, and allow for the time that it takes to make changes.

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect administrators to be a part of the team and process demonstrating their support in the work. To allow faculty to be vulnerable about their growth areas.

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect classroom teachers to be open to change and open to learning new strategies and skills in order to build their capacity to support all learners.