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How old are the students who attend RSA? This Rising Star Academy (RSA) program was designed for students between the ages of 3 years old and 6 years old.

How long could a student stay at RSA? If a student enrolled in RSA at the age of 3, they could remain in the program for up to 4 years if they elected to repeat their kindergarten year.

Do all of the students who attend RSA have autism? No, not all of the students who attend RSA have autism. Some students have autism, some students have very mild disabilities such as Sensory Processing Disorder, and some students have no diagnoses at all.

When does RSA admit students? RSA only admits students into the program on specified dates each year. The first admission date is the first day of every school year. The second admissions date is the start of January during the school year, and the third admissions date is the start of April during the school year.

What happens if I would like to enroll my child between one of the admissions date? Unless the FEAT program staff make an exception because of extenuating circumstances, your child would need to wait until the next admissions date to begin in the RSA program.

How does RSA determine which students are accepted into the program? Because the goal of the enrollment process is to ensure that we provide a classroom environment that can meet the needs of all of its students, we screen all potential applicants to assess their social skills. Specifically, for every three students with higher social skills, we will enroll one student with lower social skills. Using this screening approach allows us to help ensure that students within the program experience a more integrative social environment and that they have a range of peer models from whom they can learn and with whom they can form relationships.

How does the admissions process work for RSA? If you would like to enroll your child in RSA, here are the steps that will occur:

First, you should contact FEAT of Washington and request an observation of the RSA program. This observation will last for

30 minutes, and FEAT’s Clinical Services Director will guide you through the observation.

After your observation, you should schedule an admissions screening meeting with FEAT’s Clinical Services Director. This meeting will last for 1 hour and you can schedule it with the FEAT office staff by calling FEAT’s telephone number. This admissions screening meeting will occur between you and FEAT’s Clinical Services Director. During the meeting, you will complete a social skills screening assessment related to your child. The goal of this assessment is to help FEAT get an idea of how your child’s social skills compare to those of other children of the same age. The assessment will be scored during the meeting, and depending on the results, the Clinical Services Director will speak with you about when you might be able to enroll your child in RSA. Please note that the cost of the admissions process is $100.00, and this amount must be paid at the time the meeting begins.

If both you and the FEAT staff agree to enroll your child, your child will then begin in RSA on a week-to-week trial enrollment for the next four weeks. During this time, the RSA staff will be busy getting to know your child and her or his preferences, seeing how your child reacts to the classroom environment, and determining whether the staff thinks the RSA program will be a good and beneficial fit with your child’s unique needs. At the end of that month-long trial enrollment, you will have a meeting with the staff of RSA and both you and they will determine whether RSA is the right placement for your child. If you all agree that RSA is the right place for your child, then your child will be enrolled in RSA on a permanent basis.

If I have an admissions meeting about my child and pay the $100.0 admissions fee, is there a guarantee that RSA will accept my child? No. Paying the admissions fee and having the admissions meeting is not a guarantee that RSA will be able to admit your child. FEAT needs to charge the admissions fee because of the amount of staff time required to complete the admissions process and because of the materials costs associated with the process.

What happens if my child has lower social skills, but I would like her or him to attend the RSA program? Does RSA maintain a waiting list? If the RSA screening process determines that your child has lower social skills and would therefore have to wait until three other, more socially skilled students, enroll before admitting your child, you can elect to place your child on the RSA waiting list. We place potential students on the waiting list based on when they apply for admission. Families who enroll typically-developing siblings or friends of the applying student receive priority placement on the waiting list.

What is the cost of the RSA program? The tuition for the RSA program ranges between $750.00 per month and $1500.00 per month depending on the amount of support and level of need of the particular student.

Is there any type of tuition assistance available? Currently FEAT of Washington does not offer any scholarships for the RSA program, although we would very much like to do so in the future. For families who enroll multiple children, tuition for the second child is reduced by 50%. Also, RSA is an approved provider of applied behavior analysis services under the Microsoft Corporations ABA/Autism insurance benefit. This means that RSA’s tuition is reimbursible to qualifying Microsoft employee families at 80% of actual costs, up to the benefit’s prescribed limits.

What training does the staff have? All of the staff members are trained in Precision Teaching and the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA). All staff members hold at least a bachelor’s degree in education, psychology, behavior analysis or a related science.

How many staff members are there? RSA has a head teacher, an assistant teacher, and two paraprofessionals. As the student body attending RSA grows, FEAT will add additional staff into the classroom so that the ratio of staff to students does not exceed 1 staff member for every 3 students.

What types of instruction does RSA use? All students receive both one-on-one instruction and group instruction. Depending on the individual needs of each student, the majority of their instruction will occur in one setting or the other. Specific instructional arrangements that we use within the classroom include Direct Instruction, Discrete Trial Instruction, Fluency-Based Instruction, and Incidental Teaching.

What is the classroom daily schedule like?

9am-9:15: circle time

9:15-9:55: individual and/or group work time

9:55-10:20: bathroom & recess

10:25-10:40: snack

10:45-11:35: individual and/or group work time

11:40-12:00- facilitated social/play time & story time

What calendar schedule does RSA follow? RSA follows the Bellevue School District’s calendar. This means that RSA is in session for the dates that the Bellevue School District is in session, and that RSA takes the same holiday breaks as schools within the Bellevue School District. We do not however, follow the same staff in-service days as the Bellevue School District.