Patrick Henry High School

Patrick Henry High School is a part of the San Diego Unified School District. Circle of Friends was started at this site in September 2006 by Ellen Goren, a speech pathologist who was motivated to provide an alternative service delivery model for her students with disabilities that were receiving speech therapy. In the Fall of 2006, the program began with 15 special needs students eating lunch with 30 general education peer friends two days a week. Over the past two years, the program has expanded to include 30 students with special needs and 150 general education peer friends. Because of the high interest for this program on our campus, many special needs students are involved in Circle of Friends four days a week.

In addition to the lunch program, we offer our students the opportunity to interact with the non-disabled population in the community. There are monthly large group activities in addition to monthly volunteer work at our local Elks Club Lodge, our primary method of fundraising at this time.