Student Union exists to support the students and families of Freedom Christian Schools. It was established in 2007 to address the daily learning challenges which had been of concern to our learning community for a number of years. The Student Union serves atypical learners as part of God’s design for the body of Christ. Our students are those with diagnosed Mild Cognitive Impairments or Mild Specific Learning Disabilities in Kindergarten through 12th grade.  

It is our desire to assist our struggling students by giving them strategies and accommodations that will allow them to stay with their peers in their classrooms. On a case by case basis, Student Union will also hold classes at the student’s instructional level. To make this clearer, there are three different levels that we keep in mind when working with our students. We try to understand what the student’s independent, instructional and frustration levels are.


We know that students with different disabilities have different needs. Some of the ways we address these needs are making the following accommodations (at this point, we are not going to make modifications for classes for class completion credits):

• Size: Adapt the number of items that the learner is expected to learn or complete.

• Time: Adapt the time allowed for learning, task completion, or testing.

• Level of Support: Increase the amount of personal or mechanical assistance for the learner.

Through the observation and help from the first grade teacher, our son’s reading struggles were identified.  Through conscientious direction to professional resources outside of Freedom our son was diagnosed with significant reading disabilities.  He received significant help from Freedom’s resource room throughout the next elementary grades.  The resource room teacher was tremendous in working with him, working alongside his teachers, encouraging him and pushing him to improve.  Her interest in him both in the classroom and outside of the classroom was a wonderful blessing. 

Richard Nymeyer
Freedom Parent

• Input: Adapt the way instruction is delivered to the learner.
  
  

• Difficulty: Adapt the skill level, problem type, or the rules on how the learner may approach the work.
  
  

• Output: Adapt how the student can respond to instruction.
  
  

• Participation: Adapt the extent to which a learner is actively involved in the task.
  
  

• Environment: Adapt the classroom or other space to better accommodate a learner’s needs.
  
  

• Alternative Goals: Adapt the goals or outcome expectation while using the same materials.

In order for a student to qualify for Student Union services, the student must have recently been evaluated and meet qualifications for Special Education services. There are several components to this process.

• Recognition: Student exhibits atypical needs as compared to peers.

• Pre-referral: Student is provided interventions are ideally developed by the parents and a school based team (Response to Intervention Team-RTI).

• If the intervention in the general education classroom is successful, the process stops.

• If the interventions are not successful, we move further towards Special Education Referral.

• Referral: Student is officially referred for evaluation for special education services by an adult with knowledge of the student’s ability.

• Evaluation: With consent of the parents, the student is evaluated with a variety of assessment tools and strategies. The assessments must not discriminate and should provide information to help determine the unique needs of the student.

• Eligibility: The team (parents, school faculty, and the psychologist) determines if the student is eligible for special education services. The student must have a disability that negatively impacts his/her education performance and the child needs special education services in order to benefit from education.

• If no disability is noted that impacts education performance, special education is not required. The process stops. The student is again referred for interventions.

• If the determination is that a disability impacts educational performance then eligibility is determined Student Union and those most closely involved in the students life can move forward with a plan of action. 

• Student Union Services: The team determines what Student Union will be able to do to aid the student in being successful in the classroom.

• Reevaluation: Each year, the team will meet with the dual purpose of evaluating how the student is progressing and developing a plan for the following year.

Freedom Christian Schools partners with Christian Learning Center and Hudsonville Public Schools to ensure that the evaluations are done in the most appropriate and timely way possible. In each evaluation, we are looking to better understand what the strengths and struggles are for the student and how we can accommodate their needs. Evaluations are done by a licensed psychologist who goes through achievement and intelligence testing to see the overall picture of what type of learner your child is. The benefit to working with a Christian agency is that we are also looking at the student through a Christ-centered lens. Not only are we concerned about the learner, but we are also looking at how the student’s heart and relationship with God is related. The goal is that we come up with an individualized plan and evaluate the student’s progress on a yearly basis. A psychologist should also review the student’s progress by testing once every three years.  These re-evaluations will help your family understand how your child is doing on a regular basis and will also help when looking for accommodations with state testing and college assistance.
Psalm 139:14 says, “I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God created each individual with a particular purpose. The journey for those with a disability may be different than the typical learner, but God has given our students a particular calling and will give them the strength to overcome whatever struggles they may face. Student Union strives to create an atmosphere that will encourage the students to do their very best. Whether their best is an A or D, we are looking for independence and giving them strategies to work through their problems on their own. Success should be measured in how they learn to live their life and serve their Savior. We want to give them the strategies to live respectfully and responsibly, which includes being good stewards of the time and abilities that God has given to them. Freedom and your family can work together with them to become leaders for their homes as they do their best to glorify Him with every aspect of their life, including learning.