Submitted Photo Shaydora Todd, right, works one-on-one with a student. Building strong relationships helps all Dakota Memorial School staff support students during struggles and successes.

Helping students achieve success in the classroom and life is top priority at Dakota Memorial School on the campuses of Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in North Dakota.

Administrators and teachers at Dakota Memorial build trusting relationships with each student so they know they are supported, said Superintendent and Director of Education Tina DeGree with the Minot school.

“We want to push kids, as educators, but we also want them to know we support them and have that empathy that is needed as kids heal from traumatic experiences,” DeGree said.

Dakota Memorial schools are located on Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch properties in Minot, Bismarck and Fargo. Each school has a high school and middle school, while Minot has the only elementary school. Whether students live on campus or commute to school on the Ranch, the staff at Dakota Memorial are dedicated to meeting each student’s individual learning needs.

“In Minot we have about 60 kids and 21 of them are residential and close to 30-plus day program students,” DeGree said. “Our main focus is, one, the needs of each student at Dakota Memorial School.”

The students at Dakota Memorial School have access to counselors and therapists while simultaneously going to school. To do that requires balance as well as teamwork from the faculty and staff.

“We try to support the students as they go through their therapeutic treatment, which means we have the ups and downs that come with working through trauma,” DeGree said. “As our therapists help out students through that, we make sure we are responsive and personalized so that the kids know, if it was a really difficult session that we are responsive and understand that they may not be able to come back and do geometry.”

Students are referred to Dakota Memorial by their public schools. It requires a team of people who help students and their families find a fit that will best help them succeed.

“We are not meant to be a forever school. We are meant to be a transition school to really help the kids as they are working through their mental and physical traumas and then get them back to their home schools,” DeGree said.

Whether it is attention or diagnosis of different kinds, the students at Dakota Memorial tend to struggle in a more traditional public school setting; their time at Dakota Memorial helps them find ways to cope, handle and understand ways to enjoy and truly excel at learning.

“When kids come here there is a lot of collaboration between therapists, program managers, and the doctors, and our expertise in school, “ DeGree said. “The team becomes very responsive, so as we learn more about the students we make sure to mirror that in an educationally appropriate way. Everything we do has to be something that our students can take with them.”

Being able to find coping skills that are applicable to school as well as life after school is something they work hard to do at Dakota Memorial. Some ways to do this is simply finding classes or hobbies that students enjoy or are interested in.

“We offer a lot of electives as well, like coding and fashion design,” DeGree said. “We bring in community members so the kids can learn more about business and their community. We have graduates come back and visit with students as well, and it helps provide kids with ideas about what they want to do after school.”

The most important thing at Dakota Memorial School is the relationships they build and seeing the students excel.

“The kids are so amazing,” DeGree said. “You can walk up and down the halls and the teachers and staff can look at them and think, ‘Wow, that was something they were able to learn today.’ We know the small wins always form into bigger wins.

“We all just feel so privileged to be able to be a part of these students’ journey,” she added. “Being able to see them learn and thrive in an environment that suits their needs is very important to us.”