The Social Cognition and Academic Support Program (SCAS) is a Special Education program serving  students with an identified Autism educational disability. The program focuses on addressing the social cognition, executive functioning, and sensory processing needs that impact students' access to grade-level curriculum, while leveraging their academic strengths to promote independence and self-advocacy. Students in the SCAS Program have reasoning skills, academic potential, and broad language skills that are comparable to their same-age peers; however, there are significant long-term challenges given the impact of ASD.

The SCAS Program is currently at the middle level (grades 6-8), and embraces the philosophy of an inclusion-based structure. The program design acknowledges the unique needs of this student population by providing a system of support around a student’s inclusive educational experience. Students maintain a regular schedule of courses, just like their peers, and also have designated academic support periods within which they receive executive function support, instruction related to self-management, social cognition support, and interventions that address the ability to manage the totality of age- and grade-level demands.  The physical space and program staff operate as a ‘home base’ for students, and each student has a customized experience based both on their general, global needs as well as their present needs. As such, the program design accounts for variance in students’ needs day-to-day, and the corresponding variance in educational impact.  The goal of this program is to provide students with wraparound supports that help them navigate the context of school given their capacity for grasping instructional content. This includes support with transitions, managing responsibilities, social integration, self-awareness, self-management, and advocacy.