A team of APL clinic and academic staff will observe your learner in their typical classroom environment to get a better sense of what they have been reading about in the application materials. During COVID, this has been mostly virtual, however we intend to do observations in-person as much as possible as this gives us a more accurate assessment.

If we need additional documents to make a decision, or if the behavior witnessed during the observation is notably different from what was described in application materials, we may request additional documents at this time. 

Applicants who make it to this point will go through an admissions interview to cover any questions that arose during the initial review and potentially request additional supporting documents. If a learner will be receiving services through APL's Roots Clinic, we will also review your benefits at this point to ensure your insurance covers the services your learner is expected to need.

After the Review Committee feels they've seen enough to make a recommendation, your application will finally be either accepted or denied.

After being accepted, we will schedule an on-site visit where your learner will go through clinic and academic assessments so we can best place them and prepare teaching and support resources. We try to fit this into just one visit but learners often become fatigued by the amount of assessments and it can skew results. Multiple visits is not uncommon. 

These assessments may include the Vineland, ABLLS-R, VB-MAPP, AFLS, and/or PEAK, in addition to a variety of social and behavioral assessment batteries to gain a full sense of your child’s or adolescent’s strengths and areas of need at the outset of services. The initial assessment also includes a parent or caregiver questionnaire so that we can gain an understanding of your child and identify goals that are important to the family. We complete a record review of all relevant assessment and/or treatment in order to develop a detailed history of your child’s experience across school and previous or concurrent autism services.

After completing the assessments and record review, the BCBA crafts the initial treatment plan, outlining the specific goal areas across social, behavioral, and communication domains to be addressed over the next year.

Your learner cannot start at APL until a contract is signed.

As a final step, you will be asked to fill out enrollment information (demographics, emergency contacts, etc.) in our school information system. We will do our best to fill out information we've acquired at other steps in the journey. This is the best time to double check and finalize information as this is how it will be presented to our staff and used daily.