Specialty School

Specialty School

Building skills for independence. LifeScape’s Specialty School offers the greatest expertise in the region for helping children and young adults with disabilities learn to their greatest potential. Our certified special education teachers with teaching assistants staff each classroom at LifeScape. Our specialty school provides year-round education for residential and day students from ages 3 to 21. Our second specialty school, Pathways to Life, serves students from ages 18 to 21.

Our team of teachers, behavior analysts, psychologists, nurses, administrators, and therapists are all certified/licensed in their disciplines. This allows for every student to have their own interdisciplinary team that works together to create and implement a learning plan for their specific social, behavioral, and academic needs.

Teaching Assistant helping student during class.

LifeScape’s Specialty School is approved through the South Dakota Department of Education. We tailor each student’s learning plan or Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to their own needs and abilities, using sound scientific principles of instruction.

Our school is also accredited by the National Association of Private Special Education Centers (NAPSEC). NAPSEC is the only National Association that exclusively represents private special education programs.


Discovering Hope Through Laughter

When faced with the diagnoses LifeScape children live with, it can be hard to find hope each and every day. Inside our Specialty School there is one young man who makes it a priority to discover hope through his love for pranks.

Brayden is what we call our resident prankster. He’s not alone in it either, his team works with him every time he comes up with a plan to put smiles on the faces of fellow students at our Day School, staff, and even our CEO!

We have a feeling the new campus will open up a world of opportunities for Brayden.

Teaching Hope

Imagine being in a vehicle for three hours a day, just to go to school. It’s daily life for Crosby. Each morning he wakes up, gets a ride from Iowa to South Dakota, and goes to school all day.

His story is one you’ll hear from many others. Families struggling to find the help their child needs to succeed and live their best life.

Phase one of our new children’s campus includes increasing our specialty school by 25% to accommodate multiple decades of anticipated growth.