High school students at the Christian Academy of Western New York are eligible to take any of the vocational and occupational courses with the Niagara/Orleans Board of Cooperative Education Services. (Click here for more information on BOCES courses.)
BOCES programs are located at the 3181 Saunders Settlement Road in Sanborn, a 20-minute drive from CAWNY.
Our Seniors attend the morning session from 7:45 - 10:30 am with the Juniors attending the afternoon session from 12:30 - 2:45 pm.
Most programs are two-year programs and students must complete both the Junior and Senior years in the same program to earn credit for the programs. Students may not change programs but if a student, with parent permission, decides to opt out of completing the second part of the program, they may continue to attend CAWNY as a regular Senior taking a full load of Senior courses.
The BOCES program is open to all public and private schools in Niagara and Erie County (except Buffalo) and students will come from a mix of those districts. Transportation is provided to and from BOCES by the students’ home district in cooperation with the North Tonawanda school system. Juniors will leave CAWNY at 12:15 pm by bus, to the program and will be picked up again at 2:45 pm to bring them back to CAWNY if they are in afterschool sports. Otherwise, the bus will take them directly home. Seniors will be transported by their district to the morning BOCES program and returned by bus to our school by lunch time.
Students interested in attending a BOCES program need to attend the November/December field trip to the site and decide with their parents which program they are interested in joining. They should then pick up a form in the office, to be completed and signed by a parent letting us know that they wish to attend a program. This form should be returned to office prior to Christmas break. CAWNY will register students with BOCES. There is nothing that students need to do with BOCES to register. Certain classes may have waiting lists. New student (11th grade) registration must be completed by March 22.
The home school district pays for each student in their district. Our school will contact each district to submit the appropriate paperwork.
Students enrolled in BOCES pay the same tuition and still are active and involved members of our school. This is simply an extension of our programming and therefore does not affect tuition costs. Students will also not have any or very few study halls in their schedule as their time at CAWNY will be spent in core academic classes required for graduation. Additionally, students in BOCES may occasionally miss school-wide assemblies if the time of the program conflicts. BOCES, however, is flexible and willing to work with our school in the event that there is something happening at school that a student needs to attend even if it is during the time of their BOCES program. At the start of the year, CAWNY provides the excused absences to BOCES which includes camp, field trips and special events. BOCES students will be allowed to miss their program on those days, but will be responsible to make up any missed work from their program.
Students will be required to be in dress code while at CAWNY but will follow the guidelines for dressing while in their program at BOCES. In certain programs, specific attire is required by BOCES (chef’s coat, medical scrubs, etc.) and students should follow those guidelines. Regardless of the clothing that students wear at BOCES, students are representing CAWNY and are expected to maintain the same level of modesty.
Some of the programs at BOCES give students the option to earn their 3rd Math and/or Science course credit. Should this be the case, students may opt to use that credit towards graduation. In the junior year, students will most likely not have time to take both Math and Science and therefore will not be required to do both in 11th grade but will be required to choose at least one (even if the BOCES program offers the credit as well).