Talk:Therapeutic boarding school

Open Discussion Items
Please help present the conclusions on pages 22 and 23 of the study cited in the effectiveness section. Cdw1952 (talk) 06:26, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Therapeutic Boarding Schools / Emotional Growth Education - Are there connections to the Human Potential Movement? Please provide resources. Cdw1952 (talk) 22:38, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Edit Rationale
The phrase "These schools have been described as spartan versions of traditional boarding schools" is an unattributed quote from the book and therefore more closely associated with opinion than with fact. I therefore suggest removal.Cdw1952 (talk) 21:46, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

TBS contra Continuation schools / group homes
In Denmark we use the term Continuation School (Efterskole) for the same issues. Some are focused on helping people with problems like Dyslexia, others are treating addictions etc.

Where does the term differ from a group homes? A lot of our group homes have internal schools. Some like the Roloff homes and their spin-offs cannot offer acredited education so exams have to be taken at the nearest public school. It is like the ACE curriculum in the states where they have to do it over again in many states, because the local authorities don't recognize it.

Is it the number of detainees, that makes the difference?

Should a "See also" be added to those two articles because it is hard to tell where one term stops and the others start?

Covergaard (talk) 10:56, 5 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Therapeutic boarding schools are distinctly different from either of these. "Group homes" exist in the U.S., under that name. I'm not familiar with the term "continuation school" in the U.S., but that type of school definitely exists, most typically as a day school attended by students who live at home or in the community. Neither of these has much in common with a therapeutic boarding school.


 * Think of a therapeutic boarding school as something in between (1) a traditional boarding school and (2) a residential treatment center or psychiatric hospital.


 * Students at a therapeutic boarding school live in a dormitory on the school premises and attend classes taught by teachers on the school premises, as at a traditional boarding school. The quality of the educational program ranges from excellent to dismal, depending on the school. The students also engage in group therapy, 12-step groups, and/or "behavior modification" programs, the nature of which depends on their needs and the particular school's modus operandi. Most, but not all, therapeutic boarding schools are in remote locations (similar to residential treatment centers), but they are not lockdown facilities and the students are not "detainees" (although some therapeutic boarding schools have treated students as if they were detainees). --Orlady (talk) 21:14, 6 January 2009 (UTC)


 * But are we not talking of a US word for Continuation school? A lot of our Continuation school are specificly target against issues as ADHD or Dyslexia. They are offering art classes, therapy involving animals or drama classes. They can offer an environment where the student or detainee can succeed due to smaller classes and staff trained in the specific issue the school are in the market for. Before NATSAP was created, I did not see this term used in marketing. Are we sure that this term is not something they have invented? Also the students on continuation schools in Denmark are living on the school campus from monday to friday and even during some of the weekends. Covergaard (talk) 08:01, 12 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I have never heard the term "continuation school" used in the United States. In the U.S., what you describe would be called an "alternative high school" (see Alternative school, which has a "See also" link to Continuation high school). "Alternative schools" in the U.S. have a broad spectrum of characteristics, ranging from "free" schools (at one end of the spectrum) to highly regimented schools for students who were expelled from regular school due to discipline problems (at the other end of the spectrum). The vast majority of alternative schools (both government-supported and privately operated) are day schools. However, there are also some private boarding schools (such as Forman School and Marvelwood School) that could be classified as alternative schools, and the government's Job Corps provides education in a residential setting for youth whose families never had the money to send them to boarding school. The students who attend therapeutic boarding schools generally are not eligible for these other types of schools because their problems are too severe for these other types of schools to handle. A therapeutic boarding school costs a lot more than a regular boarding school, so parents would not choose to send their kids to a therapeutic boarding school if the kids could go to a "normal" boarding school or an alternative school.
 * I don't actually know the origin of the term "therapeutic boarding school," but it is widely used, including by schools and professionals that are not affiliated with NATSAP. --Orlady (talk) 16:00, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Phoenix House
The last editor has removed the references to Phoenix House, but they still have a copy of their marketing section on Wikipedia as independent article. Covergaard (talk) 04:29, 27 October 2010 (UTC)
 * You are right major portions of the "Who Phoenix House Serves" section are plagiarized. I am removing the whole section.I ♥ ♪♫ (talk) 05:09, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Reversion Justification
Please discuss changes to this article before making major revisions. The Effectiveness section contained properly sourced material that was deleted without a justification. The expired links need to be fixed but the content is valid. Further data on the effectivness is available on the NREPP.SAMAHSA website.I ♥ ♪♫ (talk) 06:03, 27 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I apologize for not posting here before removing that material. I had been going through several POV-heavy therapeutic boarding schools removing spamlinks and content that violated WP:NOTADVERTISING.  The Phoenix House content contained a spamlink, and what followed appeared to be text describing the effectiveness of that specific program.  Was it meant as a case study to shed light on the efffectiveness of the whole topic?  If so, that was unclear from the way it was worded/formatted (block quotes, maybe?).  If you feel it was NPOV and not advertising for Phoenix house, please reinsert the content (without the spamlink please!).   The Interior (Talk) 16:43, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Effectiveness section
I have been researching the effectiveness section and will expand it with results from 2 studies and several papers from technical journals. It starts out like this: There is very little reliable research published on the effectiveness of private therapeutic boarding schools. What research exists is primarily drawn from public residential treatment programs... -- Cdw ♥'s ♪ ♫ ( talk  ) 05:32, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

TBS vs. emotional growth?
I was surprised to see "Emotional Growth School" equated with "Therapeutic Boarding School." True therapeutic boarding schools in 2013 make extensive use of credentialed mental health professionals and have largely rejected the usual curricular content of the Linda Houghton era. One of the core principles of the emotional growth movement while Linda was a principal guide, mentor, and teacher in the movement, was the REJECTION of traditional mental health disciplines in the emotional growth movement. While I do not fail to respect the impact that the emotional growth movement has had on traditional mental health disciplines and the degree to which clinical practice has co-opted some of the elements of emotional growth, some of the harsher methods of the emotional growth movement are now seen as abusive. For that reason, the better therapeutic boarding schools tend to distance themselves from emotional growth movement. For this article to relate the two terms as it does is highly misleading. Frog one (talk) 13:41, 23 August 2013 (UTC) On the topic of research, Look at the research of Ellen Behrens, Canyon Research. See http://natsap.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Behrens.pdf and http://natsap.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Outcome_Research_Graph.pdf Also be aware of NATSAP (natsap.org) encouraging research in this area. Frog one (talk) 14:49, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Effectiveness portion
I would like to update the section of effectiveness as it is out of date. NATSAP requires all programs to now be licensed or accredited but am hesitant to as I currently work with them and it may be seen as a conflict of interest. Would I be ok with just making that edit? I would make no further changes to the page. Or would it be better for someone else to do the editing? Many thanks. https://natsap.memberclicks.net/for-parents


 * Please post suggestions for specific edits which you feel are needed and re-start the request edit. The exact text and references are what we need. – S. Rich (talk) 23:21, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Effective January 1, 2009 all NATSAP members must: •Be licensed by the appropriate state agency authorized to set and oversee standards of therapeutic and/or behavioral healthcare for youth and adolescents or accredited by a nationally recognized behavioral health accreditation agency •Have therapeutic services with oversight by a qualified clinician •Aspire NATSAP Ethical Principles and NATSAP Principles of Good Practice Source: https://natsap.memberclicks.net/for-parents Thank you S. Rich, I appreciate the help! Commacommander (talk) 12:38, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * That is a dead link. we need a real source to implement this. as before, please submit another request when you come back with a valid source. thanks! Jytdog (talk) 00:55, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Will do, their website is down at the moment but will link again when it is up. Thanks Jytdog! Commacommander (talk) 11:49, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Amazing
It is amazing to me how this article has devolved over time into a critque citing the Bazelon in the lede. A true encyclopedic article would define the subject not express opposition to it. How in the world can this article be seen as DEFINING the subject? -- Cdw ♥'s ♪ ♫ ( talk  ) 05:21, 24 July 2017 (UTC)

This article is now written completely in a persuasive style. I would recommend that someone with an interest in Encyclopedic content go back and restore some of the deleted content. -- Cdw ♥'s ♪ ♫ ( talk  ) 23:35, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

Globalize tag
This article appears to be about specific form of school and residential institution in the United States, but does not specifically say so. Do these sorts of schools or institutions exist in other countries? Are there similar programs in other countries? If so, what are they called? How are they run? Also, how do other countries deal with the issues these institutions are intended to resolve? Addressing these questions will help address systemic bias in Wikipedia. There is an essay about addressing systemic bias in Wikipedia articles. - 203.96.84.33 (talk) 01:57, 14 April 2021 (UTC)