The Gifford School or Dearborn Academy?

Our 7th grade son is in need of a therapeutic day school. It seems as though these 2 schools would be the best. We live in Waltham, MA. He is very bright and not highly motivated. He is a voracious reader and if interested in a subject, say in social studies or English, he'll soar. If not interested, he shuts down. He has ADHD and as such, is very immature for his age. Currently, he is struggling with an extremely low tolerance threshold which has resulted in major meltdowns. Does anyone have a child now or recently at one of these 2 schools? Also, I'm open to learning about other places. Thank you.

Parent Answers to "The Gifford School or Dearborn Academy?"

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If the school district is open to placing your son in a therapeutic school maybe they would consider having him do a 90 day placement at New Academy in Newton. The goal at New Academy is to seek evaluate complex kids and seek out the optimal placement based on information they gain about the child while they work intensely with the child. I know this sounds like adding one more transition but the program has a record of getting kids placed in settings that work. And speaking from experience it is very traumatic to have a placement not work and have to start the process all over again.

Other schools to check out before you settle might be Learning Prep, New England Academy, Willow Hill, Corwin-Russell, as well as some collaboratives that have excellent reputations.

If your child is an internalizer I am not so sure that Dearborn would be the right place. I would look carefully at the peer group there. Gifford's population shifts a lot and I would also be sure to get a good read on what kids are currently there and if there are peers (academically and socially) for your son. Gifford sometimes ends up with a students who are not as high functioning academically as your son might be.

Thanks for the information. We've only checked out Gifford so far, and are scheduled to interview with Dearborn on Monday.

Thank you for the information! As I am brand new to this, I don't even know how to contact someone other than what I'm doing now with you, because all I had to do was hit "reply". Please advise how to contact Jisper directly. Thank you.

As michellea mentioned, there's a poster here named Jisper, and she also lives in MA and even started a group for parents of kids in Therapeutic schools: community.greatschools.net/groups/12393
You might contact her through that group, and/or send her a private message.

There is a member named Jisper on this site that may have information about these schools and others. She also posts at www.schwablearning.org as Jisp.

That said, what were your impressions when you visited the schools? What did your son think?

When we were considering public schools we put together a matrix that compared different aspects of the school - location, facilities, peer group, special programs, culture etc.

For us, it came down to culture. Of the three schools we considered, we had the best "gut" feel about the one we chose. The culture was driven by the course of study, special activities, peer group and mission.

Best of luck!

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The Gifford School or Dearborn Academy?

Parent Answers to "The Gifford School or Dearborn Academy?"

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