About Us

Since 1983 the Gerard J. Dynes New Jersey Regional Day School in Jersey City has been devoted to working with children ages 3-21 with developmental disabilities. For over 30 years, GJDRDS has worked diligently to build a program for children with autism that is structured, nurturing, and effective in its application of up-to-date teaching techniques.

Staying true to our roots, the Gerard J. Dynes New Jersey Regional Day School has maintained one-to-one and small group sessions with a 1.4 to 1 student to staff ratio. GJDRDS has kept abreast of innovative technologies and effective, relevant assessment. Great efforts have been made to ensure the proper training and education of our staff so that we can better serve our students academically, socially, and emotionally.

Staff members at GJDRDS are highly effective, well-trained professionals dedicated to the growth of our students.

Our small school setting and small group classrooms allow us to collaborate as a working unit to help our students obtain learning objectives. We rely on one another to meet state standard goals, personal student objectives, and consistent, appropriate behavior modifications.

Our staff members are required to keep up-to-date on innovative techniques related to our population and to attend on-site professional development workshops. Professional development topics are revisited throughout the school year.

Gerard J. Dynes Regional Day School teachers work closely with support services. Services at GJDRDS include:

Speech Therapy
Occupational Therapy
Physical Therapy
Board Certified Behavior Analyst

Gerard J. Dynes Regional Day School understands how essential it is to offer extended learning during the summer months. Our students often tend to regress during the summer months with slower recoupment of skills once they return in September. Therefore, it is important for students to attend the summer program in order to retain skills they have learned throughout the school year. We offer a 20 day extended program in the month of July which follows a similar routine and curriculum as our regular school year.

New Jersey Department of Education -School Self Assessment for Determining Grades

Under the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights

School and District Scores

School Grade 66 District Grade 64

The Jersey City Public Schools has implemented the requirements found in the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act (ABR), by complying with all parts of the act in reporting incidents of harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB),

in promoting awareness about HIB to staff, students, parents, and the community, and in creating and

maintaining a positive school climate in our school.

The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) has posted school and district Harassment,

Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB) grades as stated in the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act. These grades were

determined by a district self-assessment released by the New Jersey Department of Education

Commissioner.

Under the Commissioner’s Program, the school grade is a raw score of data and the sum of the ratings on the School Self-Assessment (e.g., 71 of 78 points). A school district’s grade is an average of the total scores of all schools in the school district; however, the grade our school received is not averaged with any other school since we are not part of a larger district. The department-issued grade is not represented as a letter grade. It is important to note that in order to receive a perfect score of 78, the school must EXCEED (not just meet) the requirements in all 8 elements listed below. School districts and schools must post the exact grade reports issued by the NJDOE without making any alterations to the PDF document to fulfill its responsibilities for posting the grades to the school’s website.

The Core Elements of the HIB Self-Assessment are as follows:

HIB Programs, Approaches or Other Initiatives
Training on the BOE-Approved HIB Policy
Other Staff Instruction and Training Programs
Curriculum and Instruction on HIB and Related Information and Skills
HIB Personnel
School-Level HIB Incident Reporting Procedure
HIB Investigative Procedure
HIB Reporting