Campus Experience

Shrub Oak is a community defined by a common sense of purpose, a community committed to excellence, and above all, a community committed to supporting one another.

Guided by our core values of inclusivity, support, collaboration, and friendship, we approach each day with the belief that everything is possible.

Campus

Located just 30 minutes north of New York City, the Shrub Oak campus is ideally situated on 127 acres of rolling, wooded hills in northern Westchester County. As the area’s leading private day and boarding school for students on the autism spectrum, Shrub Oak offers both proximity to New York City and the unparalleled beauty of the Hudson Valley. Designed for an international coed population of children, adolescents, and young adults on the autism spectrum, our boarding program provides a safe, nurturing environment where each student is respected as an individual.

Boarding Program

Shrub Oak’s boarding program provides ASD students with a continuum of care that extends well beyond the school day. Surrounded by experts who care, Shrub Oak boarding students benefit from around the clock supervision complemented by an after-school curriculum that incorporates independent living skills, social development and relationship building, as well as health and wellness. Each student has their own modern, spacious dorm room with beautiful views of campus and the surrounding mountains.

Day Program

To accommodate younger students and local residents, Shrub Oak also offers a day program developed with the same care and individualized attention as our boarding program, integrating each student’s interests, developmental needs, and abilities.

Activities

All Shrub Oak students have an opportunity to participate in the rich and varied experiences that constitute the Shrub Oak campus experience. Activities are designed to stimulate students’ interests and expand their life skills. On campus, we’ve designed activities for children with autism with a holistic approach to their emotional and physical health.

Recreational programs include art, music, hiking, biking, yoga, horticulture, farming, animal therapy, and more. Weekends are filled with off-campus outings to town, the trampoline park, bowling alley, outdoor markets, parks and a wealth of other experiences that build familiarity and comfort with the wider world.

Activities are integrated into each student’s personally-designed transdisciplinary curriculum developed with a team of educators, clinicians, and campus life staff along with the student and caregivers. This individualized approach supports each student’s developmental goals and needs, while incorporating personal interests and fun into the design of their experience at Shrub Oak.

Therapeutic Horsemanship Program

Shrub Oak is proud to partner with Pegasus Therapeutic Riding to provide our students with the powerful, life-changing benefits of equine therapy.

Recognizing that the healing power of horses goes far beyond riding, Pegasus developed a therapeutic horsemanship program using individualized, experiential learning combined with a holistic approach that is particularly beneficial for children, adolescents, and young adults on the autism spectrum. The program was designed using the Pegasus Emotional Growth and Social Understanding System (PEGASUS). Developed by a team of talented educators, mental health professionals, and instructors certified by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH), PEGASUS is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which includes physical and emotional safety; connection, love, care, and belonging; esteem and self-confidence; and self-actualization and purpose.

Shrub Oak students benefit in many ways from participating in the Pegasus program including improved physical health in addition to cognitive benefits such as improved adaptability, impulse control, and self-regulation, and social-emotional benefits including connection, empathy, increased confidence, and decreased anxiety. “Horses are soothing creatures,” notes Suzie Angier, PATH International Advanced Instructor at Pegasus. Horses also help students develop an understanding of boundaries. Students learn how to communicate with the horses they interact with and to create a dialogue, whether it be spoken or unspoken, to evoke an appropriate response, an essential skill in life. At Pegasus, and at Shrub Oak, each student moves at their own pace and works toward individualized goals guided by an expert team of caring, skilled professionals.

Pegasus views their holistic approach as being equivalent to the mind, body, and spirit which parallels their commitment to meeting the cognitive, physical, and social-emotional needs of participants. As we, at Shrub Oak, work to do the same, we feel fortunate to collaborate with a program that shares so many of our own values.

Pegasus is a special place. From the moment you turn into their driveway, you experience a feeling of peace and comfort. We credit Pegasus with creating that space, but if you ask Pegasus, they will credit the horses: The horses are the teachers. The horses provide the healing.

For more information regarding the Pegasus program and the benefits of therapeutic horsemanship, please visit www.pegasustr.org.