When searching for a program or a boarding school that you want to fit the needs of your child, one of the first things you come up with on your search engine is marketing pages for for-profit therapeutic boarding schools and/or wilderness programs and boot camps. The reason for this is that they are owned by major corporations who make big money and use it to open up new facilities and are hungry for some more. Most of them will be up in the face of desperate families and will lie to them about the program structure, length of stay, academics, accreditation, and even encourage the parents to lie to the child or the other parent. Some will even encourage the use of a so-called escort service to come and kidnap their child by surprise in the middle of the night.
They will only allow interviews and campus tours with the parents, and will only show them the stuff they want them to see. Many will even claim to have one or more of the following.
- To be fully equipped with licensed workers
- Perform comprehensive background check
- Provide rigorous academics that transfer to other schools
- Effectively prepare students for college and other boarding schools
- Offer activities within their best interests
- Provide several success stories and outcomes of former students
There is more documented high pressure and deceptive marketing practices identified by ASTART. Believe it or not, there are more therapeutic schools/programs owned by businesses than there are traditional college-prep boarding schools in the United States. A school started by a non-profit organization of educators, the goal is helping the kid succeed happily. A school started by a company, the goal is money.
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