Renton has a new school for children with special needs. It’s called the Children’s Institute for Learning Differences (CHILD) and it opened in October.

After renting a space on Mercer Island for 21 years, the accredited day school for children ages 5 to 17 moved to just off of Benson Road. CHILD is also a developmental therapy clinic for kids 3 to 18 years old and a training facility for parents and teachers.

“Having raised a child who struggled mightily in school, it is an isolating experience,” said Carrie Fannin, executive director. “It’s very difficult to feel as if you have support, for one.”

Fannin found the support and resources she needed for her daughter at CHILD some years ago. The school is for children who need support beyond what their home district can offer in special education.

Disabilities served include sensory processing disorders, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, emotional-behavioral disabilities and autism.

CHILD is currently working with 20 school districts and has a capacity of about 50 to 60 students per year. Students only stay at the school between one to three years and then return to their home districts, having mastered new skills of self-regulation.

CHILD staff work collaboratively with school district staff, parents and the students on the child’s Individualized Education Plan, which are a set of goals that define the child’s progress. The institute has an empathy-based approach to care for kids who have previously been described as angry, defiant and oppositional.

“Make no mistake, this is an academic program,” said Fannin. “When children come here, they do receive an education, but I think that learning how to solve a problem is the most important thing that we are teaching the children that are here.”

The institute is not diagnosis-driven, but diagnosis-informed, said Fannin.

Staff looks at the behaviors a child is emitting to tell them the story of what needs aren’t being met. They see their students as not missing skills, but having skills that are lagging.

“So the one to three years they’re here as we are normalizing the school experience for these kids, really,” Fannin said. “And teaching them how to solve problems and to adapt to the demands of the classroom. Then they’re returned to their home school in their home district.”

The school boasts a 90 percent graduation rate, once students return to their home school. One CHILD board member was once a student of the school and is now a lawyer.

CHILD has students that come as far away as Olympia and Camano Island. There are 53 staff members total, with seven lead teachers, 25 instructional assistants and a team of prevention specialists. Their instructional assistants differ from para educators found in the public school setting because they could be social workers, speech therapists or mental health workers at the bachelor’s degree level.

CHILD does not have seclusion rooms, but instead it has prevention specialists, trained to diffuse escalating student behavior and they have quiet rooms. Students can choose for themselves whether or not they need to go to a quiet room.

“We’re very lucky to be involved in this work; there’s nothing better than working with children, who need to be understood,” said Fannin.

CHILD is a non-public agency that is approved by the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to contract with public school districts. All of CHILD’s revenue comes from tuition and fees for students placed by parents or in partnership with the up to 20 school districts that reside in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties. Its clinical services division serves children in the community and those students enrolled in CHILD. Additional financial support is received from grants and fundraising efforts of the agency.

CHILD will host their annual fundraising luncheon, “Dare to Dream,” at noon on Feb. 26, at the Renton Pavilion Event Center, 233 Burnett Ave. S., Renton. For more information, visit www.CHILDnow.org/heart.