786-505-1617
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1025 NE Miami Gardens Drive, North Miami Beach, FL 33179

Tools for
Success

Therapeutic
Environment

Professional &
Caring StaFF

Each Newly Acquired Skill Opens Another Door to Increased Freedom and Independence.
We firmly believe that our students have INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL - And we expect
GREAT THINGS

Torah Learning

Every Jewish child deserves a Torah-true education

Safety and Security

A warm, loving and professional environment

True Friendships

Children flourish and grow with peers with whom they can connect
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Our Mission

To provide individualized Jewish education in a therapeutic environment to children with special needs, ensuring they can each achieve the highest degree of knowledge, Jewish practice, self-esteem, and independence possible.

A PLACE FOR
CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS WHERE
EACH CHILD CAN SHINE

Our Interdisciplinary Approach

Here at JEMS Academy, we recognize that children with special needs require support on multiple levels: academic, physical, behavioral, social-emotional, and sensory. No two children are exactly the same and that is why our staff will tailor-make a Personalized Learning Plan that ensures a holistic approach so each child can truly reach his or her potential.

Our team of dedicated Special Education professionals will focus on charting a path forward for each child which interconnects both academic and therapeutic interventions. The result will be a truly harmonious approach to giving our children the very best education, the highest level of professional therapy, and the warmth and caring that ensures they can thrive and succeed. 

Focus on Middos

Each week JEMS students learn about the weekly parsha in a unique way. They focus on a special middah that can be learned from the parsha, and through an immersive experience of making projects, role playing, songs and kinesthetic activities, they truly internalize the timeless lessons the Torah teaches about being the best person you can be.
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Our staff members have been hand-picked for their stellar educational achievements, advanced level of experience, and passion for special education.

Unlocking each child's potential

Our staff members have been hand-picked for their stellar educational achievements, advanced level of experience, and passion for special education.

Our Exceptional Staff

Our amazing staff members set and carefully track progress on each child’s goals in all areas of development. This process brings their incredible, and considerable, rich experience, as well as advanced education, to the table, and helps them meaningfully contribute their observations and ideas for improvement. Staff members meet regularly and bring together the entire team involved in each student’s care and education to discuss progress and brainstorm ways to overcome challenges and improve performance. Our staff members have decades of combined experience, and each of our teachers holds a Master's degree in Special Education.

Therapeutic Equipment

Our state-of-the-art sensory gym will be a blend of therapeutic equipment designed to strengthen and develop gross motor and fine motor skills, and areas designed to give children the sensory input they may need to function optimally. Some children require movement, bouncing, rolling, or textured materials in order to be able to focus and open their minds to learning. For these children, a sensory gym is critical to their ongoing success.

We will also have a separate sensory calming room designed to help students who have sensory processing issues to self-regulate and enable improved focus. Special lighting and textured items will help release tension and built up anxiety.

Life Skills Development

Life skills development areas provide an immersive experience for children, ultimately helping them to achieve a higher level of independence. Household chores, safety, and personal care are just a few of the areas we strive to teach our children to navigate

Individualized Education

Most children with special needs require a very high staff-to-student ratio. Some children even need a one:one ratio to succeed. They also require a high level of oversight and team planning. The cost of educating our children is therefore an average of four to six times that of a typically functioning student.

It takes a village to raise a child. It takes the entire community to raise and support a child with special needs.

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The Challenge

South Florida Jewish educators have long grappled with the dilemma of how to accommodate children with special needs. While some children have managed to move along with their typically functioning peers, they often struggle mightily, learning a fraction of what they are truly capable of, and lacking coordination of care to manage their school experience.

Other children who are not so fortunate find themselves in various environments that are usually far from ideal. Some children are in non-religious settings where they are learning only secular subjects, and where their parents are compelled to bring them to off-site therapies after an exhausting day of school. Results are not optimal, both because of timing and because the therapy does not integrate with what they are learning and working on in school.

Public school is truly a last resort, as parents can attest to the poor educational programs, challenging environment often conflicting with Jewish values, and group therapy sessions that barely move the needle on their children’s therapeutic goals. Unfortunately, cultural differences can lead to hostility from staff members as well. Often incidents can go undiscovered for some time, as many children don’t have the words to express the difficulties they are encountering. Parents confide how difficult it is for their children, and only wish their child could just have a friend.

“Not only will this be of great benefit to the children who are able to now become part of a yeshiva community, it’s going to benefit our own students. Our students will have the opportunity to interact with these special neshamos who are able to bring out some of the goodness that lies within each child...to understand that everyone has struggles, and everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses. We are all children of Hashem, and we all deserve the same chance. JEMS Academy, this new venture, should have a lot of success and should become the crown of our South Florida Jewish Community...”

Rabbi Kalman Baumann
Principal, YTCTE Klurman Elementary School
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Volunteering at JEMS

Our dedicated team of volunteers is wholly committed to bringing the JEMS vision to all the children who can benefit from our services within our community. Whether they are supporting fundraising efforts, helping coordinate events, or bringing their talents to enrich our students' daily activities, our volunteers are truly our heroes.

Our Rabbinical Board

  • "For us to be able to join in supporting and encouraging JEMS is an extraordinary opportunity. To see children with special needs, who are facing various levels of challenges come to one place surrounded in a loving Torah environment...to learn, to receive therapy, and ultimately, to b'ezras Hashem be able to meet their goals and lead fulfilling lives, is of paramount importance to our community."

    Rabbi Ephraim Eliyahu Shapiro
    Rav of Congregation Shaaray Tefilah, North Miami Beach, FL
  • “When we help these families to be able to provide a nurturing, warm, Jewish environment for these special souls, we are investing not only for their future, we are investing also for our future...and obviously for the future of Am Yisroel. For this holy project of JEMS, we need people to step up to the plate...to be able to develop this essential program for the South Florida community.”

    Rabbi Yosef Galimidi
    Rabbi of Edmund J. Safra Synagogue, Aventura, FL
  • “Nothing can substitute an education and an environment that is tailor-made and custom-made for bringing out the best of these children. Without a question, as a community, our job is to make sure that we have all the institutions and all the infrastructure to meet those needs and challenges...With JEMS, we’re going to have that tool, the most essential tool in the toolbox.”

    Rabbi Moshe Matz
    Executive Director, Agudath Israel of Florida

Our staff members have been hand-picked for their stellar educational achievements, advanced level of experience, and passion for special education.

Get In Touch With Us!

Jewish Education Made Special

1025 NE Miami Gardens Drive,
North Miami Beach, FL 33179
786-505-1617
Contact Us
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