Original Research by School Decision on Exceptional Learners Collaborativ
Exceptional Learners Collaborative is a special education school serving students in grades nine through twelve in Vernon Hills. It is not a comprehensive high school but rather a specialized public cooperative designed for students who require intensive special education services.
The school is part of the Exceptional Learners Collaborative, a joint operation of multiple Lake County school districts. This structure means it serves students from a wider geographic area rather than a single neighborhood attendance zone. The school's enrollment data were not available, so the current student population and its composition by grade or need category cannot be stated from the records reviewed.
State assessment results were not reported for this school. This absence reflects the nature of specialized education settings: students served at Exceptional Learners Collaborative often follow alternative curricula aligned to individualized education plans rather than grade-level state testing benchmarks. No graduation rate, proficiency data, attendance metrics, or chronic absenteeism figures appear in the available records. These gaps are typical of schools designed around individualized rather than cohort-based pathways.
The school sits in Vernon Hills, an auto-oriented suburban village in Lake County's northwest quadrant, roughly twenty miles from central Chicago. The surrounding area is predominantly single-family residential and retail-commercial, organized around major shopping corridors and anchored by employers such as Tetra Pak, CDW, and Zebra Technologies. Housing values in the zip code are above the state median, and rental costs have risen modestly. The Metra North Central line provides rail access to Chicago about forty minutes away, with service at the Vernon Hills station supplemented by Pace bus routes.
A parent or guardian considering Exceptional Learners Collaborative should contact the school directly to understand its specific special education programs, service delivery model, and the referral or enrollment process. Since the school is a cooperative rather than a single-district operation, placement typically depends on the student's home district's participation and the nature of the student's documented needs. The school's location in Vernon Hills and its dedicated special education focus make it one option in the Lake County landscape for students whose learning profiles fall outside the scope of general education high schools.
See more original research from School Decision →