• The Sussex Consortium was approved as an Alternative Route to Educational Certification to certify employees in Autism and Severe Intellectual Disabilities.  Through a partnership with Pyramid Educational Consultants, the Sussex Consortium (SC) has trained in-house leaders who are approved to provide the on-the-job training and to monitor the mastery of skills of all candidates for certification. The year-long training offered by our leaders in concert with Pyramid Educational Consultants provides candidates with a combination of comprehensive training and consultative guidance to support educational teams in building effective learning environment using the Pyramid Approach to Education.

    All staff participating in the alternative route program will be employed by the Sussex Consortium, be in good standing, actively participate in the trainings and observations, and be eligible for the certification based on the Delaware State Standards for certification in autism and severe intellectual disabilities.  In order to receive certification, all candidates will need to demonstrate mastery in the nine elements of the Pyramid Approach to Education model; Functional Activities, Powerful Reinforcement Systems, Functional Communication, Contextually Inappropriate Behavior (CIB) and Replacements, Generalization, Lesson Formats, Error Correction, Teaching Strategies, and Data Collection and Analysis.

    The SC leaders will provide a minimum of 10 consultative visits to a classroom spread across the year.  A Pyramid consultant will continue to consult three times throughout the year to keep SC on course and to re-certify SC leaders to continue with the certification process.  In addition, once certified, the SC leaders will continue to provide annual ‘check-ins’ to ensure the candidates continue to show mastery of the skills and to offer support for any concerns that may arise.

    In addition to the above, Pyramid Educational Consultants will provide comprehensive workshops: The Pyramid Approach to Education, (Picture Exchange Communication System) PECS Level 1 Training, and Teaching Critical Communication Skills for all new staff and as a refresher to previous staff.