LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Students acting up in class, screaming, even spitting and throwing things. It can happen in many classrooms. But some of them aren't able to control their actions.

At the Alfred Binet School in Louisville, it might be a little loud but there's a good reason teachers are more likely to cut their students some slack.

"The majority of our students have some kind of trauma in their pasts," Michele Edelen, exceptional childhood education teacher, said. 

The Binet School is a Jefferson County Public School where all of the students have special needs.

"Some of the inappropriate choices that they make, sometimes can't be helped," Edelen said.

Those inappropriate choices include everything from shouting to hitting.

"People are like, 'Well, why is that kid hitting,'" Binet School Principal Trisha Gallagher said. "Our students exhibit behaviors that would get them suspended at the other schools."

At the Binet School, part of the curriculum is teaching students how to use words and pictures to communicate appropriately in order to get their needs met, Gallagher said.

"We want to try to teach them to communicate what their wants and needs are, what their frustration is, to try to de-escalate that child," said Edelen.

The school consists of students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Once students are old enough, they're given jobs at the school.

Addison Clayton-Shaw is in the 11th grade and said she gets to help out with the puppies. After graduation, she hopes to continue working.

"I want to be a technician with nails," Clayton-Shaw said.

After 22 years in the classroom, Edelen has a new role and new student success stories to share as she works with job-related skills for students age five through 21.

"And every day he would come to school for a bit and then he would leave and go to UPS, and then go home," Edelen said about a former student. "And when he graduated from here, he is still working at UPS."

While there isn't a basketball or football team at the school, there is a prom for the students.

"We have a DJ play music and they get to dance and, some of them, their parents may dress them up," Edelen said. "So, they might come into school really pretty in their dresses or tuxes that day and that's a very exciting thing for our kids every year."

The school also has a system to reward students for reaching their goals.

"They all work on a bulldog board system," Edelen explained. "So, they'll earn up to five bulldogs. Sometimes you might get a whole class period before you earn that fifth bulldog. Sometimes you might earn three sets of five Bulldogs in one class, so it depends on the individual student, how quickly they're earning those bulldogs or if they can work for longer periods of time. And usually, after every five bulldogs, they will get a small token of something that they're working for."

Though teachers are able to dress in casual clothing and wear sneakers, Edelen said the job is not always easy.

"Yeah, there's spitting going on and hitting, kicking, scratching, all of that stuff," she said. "So it's kind of dress for comfort. Don't wear anything nice because it's probably going to get messed up."

Edelen said there's also a reward system for faculty and staff at the school.

"One of the greatest things hearing from parents was how much the students inappropriate behaviors have decreased. How they just feel so good knowing that their child is coming to school, they're going to be safe, knowing that their child may act out but then they're not going to get a call every single day, 'Come and pick up your kid, he did that,' because we don't do that," said Edelen. "We deal with that in-house. So comments like that from parents, that I've had over the years, are, to me, just really a blessing because it reminds me every time I hear that why I've been here as long as I have and why I continue to come in every day, happy and loving my job."

When and if there is a need, the school has staff in place to handle a wide range of issues with students.

"We have the ability to isolate students and it's called seclusion. We have three seclusion rooms where they may need to go if they're harming other people," said Gallagher. "And then we have a team of responders that can do safe crisis management if needed. Our goal here at Binet is to let students deescalate where they are."

This year's prom is on Thursday.

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