Center for Academic Strategies and Achievement (CASA)

NMH’s Center for Academic Strategies and Achievement, known as CASA, is at the heart of our academic support services. First and foremost, CASA works with students who have documented learning differences to ensure that they receive reasonable and appropriate accommodations. CASA offers two specific avenues of support: accommodations and academic coaching.

Accommodations
Accommodations are designed to minimize the impact of a diagnosed disability on a student’s school performance and, to the extent possible, provide equal access to the curriculum. Accommodations affect how a student accesses instruction or assessment but do not fundamentally alter or modify the essential nature of a course, the curriculum, or graduation requirements. 

Students with diagnosed disabilities may request classroom accommodations by contacting the director of CASA, Kyle Kretzer. NMH follows nationally recognized documentation guidelines. See the specific documentation requirements for classroom and/or testing accommodations.

Academic Coaching
CASA offers individual sessions with an academic coach to help students strengthen their skills and build confidence. Work with a coach might include developing successful study strategies, improving executive function skills, responding to academic challenges, or developing communication plans between the student and their teachers. 

Coaching is available at the discretion of the CASA director, and priority will be given to students with a documented need as described in the accommodations section above. Students can request coaching or be referred to CASA by a teacher or advisor. 

Academic coaching may be either short term or long term, with the goal of students becoming increasingly independent. Students and coaches meet weekly, at a mutually agreed-upon time. The cost of academic coaching is included in tuition. 

In addition to (or instead of) weekly coaching, students with a documented need can attend a structured evening study hall called the CASA Lab, where CASA staff help them prioritize their work for the evening and offer support as needed.