Bloom360 Learning Community

Bloom360's day school provides a whole-person focused program for neurodivergent students ages 5-21 who do best in a smaller, sensory-friendly environment with pacing that is aligned with their needs. The roots program is a part-time offering for neurodivergent students ages 5-adult, who are homeschooled or already completed another educational program, who benefit from the social-emotional growth opportunities and highly skilled and experience staff to support whole-person growth. Our multi-disciplinary team includes traditional education, special education, occupational therapy, music therapy and social work.the Bloom360 day school education model tracks with common core state standards for academic scope and sequence, but paces with learners by focusing on building relationships, harnessing strengths and incorporating the five key areas of human development: emotional, social, body, spirit (joy & purpose) and mind to support learners in all aspects of their growth. The roots program learners are integrated with the day school learners and benefit from the whole-person approach, with the differentiator being that Bloom360 is not their school of record for academics. In their seventh academic year (2023-2024), learners met 61 common core standards, completed 40 individual projects, 13 small group projects and 6 school-wide projects. This is a 42% increase in the number of common core standards completed over the prior year with a very similar number of learners. Learners averaged 15% annual growth on the seven-point social-emotional growth scale toward mastery of their individualized goals (e.g., self-regulation, decision making, self-awareness, leadership, perspective taking, etc.). Learners achieved a collective 3.84 in their academics (social studies, science, language arts and math) in their individualized developmental Learning plans (dlp) as measured by the four-point scale of understanding: 1. Introductory, 2. Emerging, 3. Partial and 4. Confident. This collective score is a 6.4% increase over the prior year and includes more challenging projects and assignments. Learners achieved 19% growth toward their individual life skills goals. This includes things like self-care, meal prep, vocational training, independent living skills and personal finance. Bloom360 had its first high school graduate at the conclusion of this program year. The learner completed the Wisconsin state requirements to receive a full high school diploma and has a full-time job offer at a business where he worked part time for the past two years.our college fieldwork program continues to expand and included two college interns during the year. College/university students in the fields of occupational therapy, social work and music therapy are welcomed to Bloom360 for a robust and innovative fieldwork placement. Current fieldwork programs are with alverno college, bryant & stratton college, milwaukee area technical college (matc), mount mary university and university of Wisconsin madison (ranked 17th best occupational therapy program in u.s. news & world report.) The interns benefit from Bloom360's multi-disciplinary staff, having weekly mentoring sessions and working with the learners. Since the program started in 2020, 17 interns have completed more than 4,000 fieldwork hours. As Bloom360 strives to redefine special education to better meet the needs of neurodivergent learners, it is vital to help build awareness and expand the skills of the next generation of educators and therapists.our team conducted two community-based, free workshops for 29 parents, educators and adult caregivers who serve special needs children. The workshops: sensory processing and big emotions share information not otherwise available in southeastern Wisconsin. This information is critically important to parents of special needs children because they often have multiple disorders and delays along with sensory processing disorder. The long-term overall goal at Bloom360 Learning Community is to equip learners to be prepared for internships, college, military service, work and importantly, being a well-adjusted, contributing member of their Community. We also will continue to be a resource for parents, educators and other service providers in our region and beyond who would benefit from connecting and Learning more about sensory processing, a developmental framework and other topics that are critical to supporting the continued growth of neurodivergent children and adults.