CHIME Institute’s “Creating Inclusive Environments” Professional Development Training

Schools across the country are looking to improve their methods and school-wide systems in order to support all students in inclusive educational settings. CHIME Institute has over two decades of experience creating fully inclusive educational settings for all learners.

Help your school develop its inclusive practices. Join a unique professional development opportunity this fall. Participants will be provided an opportunity to observe inclusive environments, receive training on systems and strategies that support inclusive environments, and will also create an implementation plan for their school site in order to implement practices that they have learned. Follow-up webinars and on-site coaching will be provided in the months following the PD, and each school will be assigned a “coach” to help them through the implementation process.

About the CHIME Institute

The CHIME Institute, a nonprofit organization established in 1990, is a national leader in the development and implementation of a unique model of inclusive education. The institute began with an early childhood program based at California State University, Northridge. The success of the early childhood program, coupled with the needs of the community and sound research, prompted a group of parents and Cal State Northridge faculty to develop a charter elementary school in 2001 and a charter middle school in 2003. The two schools were merged into kindergarten through 8th grade in 2010 and named the CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger Community School.

Inclusive education at CHIME Institute means that children who reflect the demographics of the surrounding region—including children who develop typically, children with special needs, and children who are gifted—learn side by side. CHIME’s model allows for the individual needs of each child to be addressed in a manner that enhances each child’s strengths while also addressing learning needs.

In addition, CHIME serves as a model for educators through its partnership with Cal State Northridge’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District. It facilitates research opportunities and regularly hosts visitors from surrounding districts and as far away as Japan and the United Kingdom who are interested in replicating CHIME’s successes, in their own schools and communities.