THE TCS MODEL
The Whole Day Works Together
The Craig School is one integrated academic school for capable students in grades 3 through 8. Learning, support, and skill-building are not separate parts of the day. They happen together, in the same room, by design.
If your child is bright but stuck in a traditional setting, that integration is the difference.
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ONE SCHOOL
Not a Patchwork of Programs
Many families arrive after years of the same pattern. Accommodations added on. Tutoring after school. A resource period that pulls a child out of the room. Each piece meant well. None of it worked together.
TCS is built differently. There are no side tracks, no pull-outs, no supplemental services running parallel to the rest of the day. Every student is in the same school, with the same support woven into every hour of it.
The structure is the support.
FOUR PILLARS
The Architecture of Every School Day
The TCS model rests on four pillars. They are not departments or separate scheduled blocks. They are the architecture of every class, every subject, and every routine.
These four pillars are not four things your child juggles. They are one experience, engineered to work together.
Academic Excellence
A rigorous, standards-based curriculum that builds knowledge, critical thinking, and problem-solving. A smaller school does not mean smaller expectations. Academic challenge stays intact.
Executive Function
Explicit instruction and daily practice in organization, planning, self-management, flexible thinking, and self-advocacy. These skills are taught directly, then reinforced across every subject throughout the day.
Social Skills
Every student takes about one hour of direct instruction each day. It is a core class, not an elective. Students learn to understand themselves, communicate clearly, and navigate relationships with skill.
Family Partnership
Home and school operate from the same language and the same strategies. Through ongoing communication, parent education, and structured collaboration, families are active participants in the model.
HOW IT WORKS
The Pillars Connect. They Do Not Take Turns.
A math lesson becomes a context for executive function practice as students plan an approach and manage their thinking. A group project applies the communication skills taught earlier that morning. A hard moment becomes a real opportunity to use self-regulation strategies that run across the whole school.
Students encounter the same language and the same expectations in every class and every routine. That consistency is what turns instruction into habit, and those habits follow your child home, into the community, and into the next school.
BUILT-IN SUPPORT
What Support Looks Like Here
At most schools, support means leaving the room. A pull-out. A separate track. At TCS, support is what the room looks like. Two structural features make that possible.
- A 5:1 ratio. TCS maintains an average of one staff member for every five students. Each classroom is led by a California credentialed teacher and supported by Program Coordinators who provide academic coaching, executive functioning support, and social-emotional guidance.
- A 16-student maximum class size. Small classes allow for individualized instruction, real-time feedback, and early identification of gaps before they grow.
In practice: your child is known. Feedback arrives when it matters. Struggles get caught early. No one gets lost.
RIGHT FIT
Who the Integrated Model Serves
TCS serves capable students in grades 3 through 8 who need a school built around how they think.
The model fits a student who:
- Is bright and capable, but not thriving in a traditional setting
- Has ADHD, autism, or executive functioning challenges, or has simply not found the right environment
- Can participate in a classroom community, even if that has been hard before
- Does better with routine, consistency, and clear expectations
A formal diagnosis is not required for admission. What determines fit is whether the model matches how your child learns. If it does not, we will say so directly.
Frequently asked questions
No. There is no separate track at TCS. Every student is in the same integrated school, with support built into the same day. The 5:1 ratio, daily coaching, and structured routines apply to every student in every class.
No. Students follow a rigorous, grade-level curriculum. The difference is the environment, not the standards. When students stop spending their energy surviving the day, the academic results follow.
It changes what the day feels like in practice. With one staff member for every five students, instruction is individualized, feedback is immediate, and gaps are caught before they compound.
Both. Students receive explicit instruction, then practice those skills across every subject: planning a writing task, organizing a science investigation, managing a group project. The skill appears everywhere because it is taught to appear everywhere.
ADmissions
Talk With Our Admissions Team
If TCS sounds like a fit for your child, the next step is a direct conversation. You share your child's history and goals. We give you an honest read on whether the model is built for a learner like yours.
Now enrolling for 2026–27.