This is my career. This is my home. This is my family.

CLO supports Extended Family teachers through initial and ongoing training, and through the provision of professional supports such as nursing and behavioral coaching. CLO is a teaching organization, with a focus on helping individuals with special needs to achieve their goals, and to participate fully within their lives. CLO’s training and support focuses on the following outcomes: that all people have opportunities to learn and grow, have a healthy and safe environment within which to live; have opportunities to be a functional part of their school and/or communities; have meaningful relationships with family and friends; and have the ability to self govern their lives as they become adults.

Before an individual or couple can be a part of CLO’s Extended Family Teaching Model they must go through a stringent application and selection process that includes interviews, a home placement study, background checks, and more. The individual/couple must meet a variety of contractual obligations regarding how the needs of the adult or child will be met, and agree to allow frequent visits from CLO program administrators who monitor quality, contractual requirements, and who provide ongoing assistance and coaching.    

CLO’s Extended Family Teaching Model involves a specially trained individual or couple who opens their home and extends their family life to a child or an adult with an intellectual disability. CLO matches individuals or couples with one or more children/adults with special needs by evaluating the needs of the child/adult, and the lifestyle of the family. Although it is not imperative that the individual or couple have an existing relationship with the individual to be served, it is preferred that there is already a positive relationship established. CLO can assist with developing this relationship through initial visits and conversations. Individuals/couples who wish to apply may also propose to serve a child or adult with whom they already have an existing positive relationship, and who is choosing or in need of placement within a family home.

CLO’s placements are designed to be long-term and to have no age limit. This means that children with special needs are able to remain with the foster family beyond the age of 18. Similarly, an adult with special needs may voluntarily choose to live with a family with whom they have a good relationship, without being in foster care as a child.