Admissions Consulting Archives

Therapeutic School Planning

March 3, 2018 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

For years, Faya and I have worked with families needing to consider therapeutic school planning for their child. More often than not, these cases come forward when a family is in total crisis. These crises are typically in one of two categories: 1) the student is in crisis at school and the administration has raised serious red flags and imposed academic probation or has just counseled the student out of their program, or 2) the student holds it together well enough at school but then regularly engages in risky behavior, presents a safety to risk to self or others, or unleashes fury on mom, dad, and/or siblings after school and weekends. There are plenty of instances where both school professionals and parents share similar observations, but often the emotional dysregulation plays out differently at school and at home. Similarly, we work on this planning for young adults needing supportive services too.

It’s very common to see hints of stress sensitivity, frustration intolerance, rigidity, or anxiety at younger grade levels that escalate considerably during the 7th, 8th and/or 9th grade years. At these ages, social pressures have increased as well as academic expectations and extracurriculars. Hormones are shifting and adolescence takes over, which brings challenges under the best of circumstances. When clinically significant mood disorders, anxiety, substance use, phone or gaming addiction, learning disabilities, and/or social pragmatic challenges are added to the picture, it creates the “perfect storm” often leading to therapeutic school planning.

While New York City has a wealth of resources and many of the best mental health professionals in the world, it is surprisingly limited on therapeutic school options. We do have several great institutions, but space is limited, and they’re not designed for all student profiles. Fortunately, there are incredible programs across the country offering gold standard, residential, therapeutically immersive intervention, but consideration of them requires casting a wider net and keeping a more open mind. For parents suffering a crisis situation, the idea of considering a therapeutic program in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Virginia, North Carolina, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Hawaii or elsewhere seems unfathomable and terrifying. But for our families who have taken this brave step, it’s typically been the start to a positive and reparative family experience.

Annually, Faya and I consistently spend about 40% of our calendar year visiting and re-visiting programs across the country and attending professional conferences in addition to our local school visits. When we travel, we’re visiting a range of licensed and accredited programs from mainstream boarding schools to specialized boarding schools (for students with specific types of learning differences) to therapeutic environments. These therapeutic environments range from hospital settings to wilderness programs to residential treatment centers and therapeutic boarding schools. Our preferred programs have top-notch faculty, including Master’s level and PhD level clinicians, providing supervision and treatment. The treatment plan is informed by a thorough intake process, making use of comprehensive evaluations, and developed in collaboration with the stakeholders at home so that each student has an individualized plan. Like skillful educators are cross-trained in a variety of evidence-based instructional approaches, these faculties are cross-trained in a variety evidence based therapeutic modalities.

The lines can be a little blurry as you compare programs, and some outlier hybrid models exist, so it’s critical that families work with trusted educational consultants, which these programs strongly prefer. Ideally, your Educational Consultant should be a Professional Member of NATSAP and IECA with a therapeutic school placement designation. When parents attempt to find programs on their own they can be overwhelmed by the myriad beautiful websites all promising the same desired outcomes. The most effective Educational Consultants spend time visiting programs, connecting with clinical teams and school leadership, and learning about the finer points that differentiate each program. This “boots on the ground” approach puts us in a unique position to make a better match between program and student. In our case, we have professional designations for mainstream, specialized and therapeutic school planning, which is highly unusual and extremely advantageous for our families as they navigate different pathways and timelines for a specific child or siblings within a family.

In our experience, many families are perplexed about the location of these therapeutic programs and cannot imagine enrolling their child in a program so far away. But there’s good reason for these programs being located outside of New York City. First, there’s a history to consider within this industry that is deeply rooted in programming at Brigham Young University. As a result, many professionals in this space got their start in Utah or Idaho at groundbreaking, successful programs and then branched out from there. Second, a huge part of the therapeutic process makes use of the majestic scenery out west — and across our country — with easy access to nature for adventure and recreation therapy. Many children are better served in quieter parts of the country where they’re able to feel more grounded with less sensory stimulation and fewer transitions. Finally, it’s worth noting that New York City attracts a certain personality type that skews toward being more Type A and amped-up. When you spend time in quieter parts of the country, you can’t help but notice a considerable shift. It’s a stark contrast to New York City and the perfect opportunity for many students to access the time and space they need to find themselves, develop coping strategies, identify a purpose, and engage in goal-setting.

We appreciate that therapeutic residential settings are rarely a family’s first choice, and we support exhausting all local resources before making this sort of transition. But if it’s needed, we’re so fortunate to have such great options available. Enrolling a child in one of these programs is an incredible gift and can truly save a child’s life — a fact many students have explicitly shared with us as a result of their positive experiences. Choosing one of these programs isn’t about giving up on parenting or breaking up a family. Quite the opposite. When a family is bought into the process and a genuine partnership is established, the reparative experience and positive impact stands to be huge. So when is it time to consider therapeutic school planning? Here are several signs for parents:

• Your child is regularly engaged in school avoidance or refusal.
• You can’t seem to schedule enough time with your child’s therapeutic team in New York City (or your local area).
• You’re hemorrhaging resources (e.g. emotionally, financially, socially) on one child at the expense of other children in the family.
• You’re walking on eggshells to avoid triggering your child.
• You feel like you’re living with a Jekyll and Hyde personality.
• You do not feel like you can appropriately monitor your child’s safety.
• Your marriage or partnership is suffering.

If you’re concerned about your child’s trajectory and looking for therapeutic school planning support, please contact our office to discuss your family’s situation in more detail.

To access therapeutic program research, best practices, and historical detail, we suggest:

Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Council
Association for Experiential Education
NATSAP Research
Stories From The Field,by Will White
All Kinds of Therapy, by Jenney Wilder

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed. and Educational Consultant, My Learning Springboard

When To Begin College Planning Efforts

December 2, 2017 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

College planning — it’s what keeps high school juniors and seniors (and their parents) up at night. But although college planning efforts reach their height in eleventh and twelfth grades, the buildup begins much earlier. Below is a guide to begin your college planning efforts at 7th grade and continue through senior year so that your child can enjoy a smooth and successful application process.

7th Grade

Maybe your child attends a school that ends after 8th grade, so you know that they will need to apply to high schools. Maybe your child attends a school that goes through 12th grade, but you think another school might be a better fit. Either way, 7th grade is the year to start thinking about high-school applications. You can draft a preliminary school list and help your child begin preparing to take the ISEE or other similar tests. Because the ISEE and SSAT are both designed as significantly above grade level measures, a longer runway for preparation is best. Therefore, we encourage families to organize ISEE diagnostic work in January of the 7th grade year. This 7th grade school year is also a really important one to organize a comprehensive evaluation if there are any concerns about inattention or learning challenges. Both ACT and College Board look for a documented history of challenges and accessing accommodations at school as part of their approval process. ADHD, for example, is best documented by age 12. High school planning and accommodations planning are both critical components of your college planning efforts.

8th Grade

Fall of 8th grade is high school application season. After open houses and other school visits, you and your child can narrow down the application list. As you help your child choose schools, the foremost guiding principle should be this: a happy student is a successful student — and vice-versa. Beyond core academics, does a given school offer electives that will engage your child? Are your child’s interests reflected in the extracurricular offerings? If your child has an exceptionality, what sorts of supports does the school have in place? If your child is already interested in certain colleges, has the school sent any graduates to that college recently? Fall of 8th grade is also admissions testing season, and you’ll want to schedule your child’s test dates strategically. For instance, students can take the ISEE up to three times a year, once in each of three four-month windows; most of our families have their child test once in November and once in December. This ISEE or SSAT preparation always serves to bolster high school readiness and is prerequisite content for the ACT or SAT.

9th Grade

Ninth grade is a crucial year; research has shown success in 9th grade to be a strong predictor of success in future grades. Your child’s grades should indicate that they are mastering the foundational skills necessary to thrive in higher level courses — especially in math and foreign language, which are heavily sequenced. Speaking of foreign language, many selective colleges require three years of a foreign language and prefer four, so it’s important that the language your child chooses in 9th grade is one that they will want to stick with. At the same time, 9th grade, which frequently offers a student’s first experience with electives, is a time for the student to explore which subjects and extracurriculars they find most exciting. Because of all of the standardized testing that’s underway beginning in high school, it’s an important school year to review any previous evaluations from elementary or middle school to determine if updated testing is needed. Psychologists often have wait lists, and it’s best to avoid an evaluation scramble.

10th Grade

10th grade should find your child building further on the skills from 9th grade. It’s also the first year that most students take the PSAT, which schools typically organize. Significant preparation for the PSAT is not necessary unless a student is trying to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship. January to March of 10th grade is a good time to choose whether the ACT or SAT is right for your child (colleges accept either) and to start preparing for that test. For students taking Advanced Placement classes, May of 10th grade is their first encounter with a heavy testing schedule that simulates college exams; students should start preparing for AP tests months ahead of time. The summer after 10th grade is a great time for at least one “practice” college visit, or a few preliminary college visits as part of your college planning efforts. It’s also worth considering possible tours for the fall of junior year. Moreover, January of 10th grade is the time to be seriously considering and beginning to apply for pre-college summer programs.

11th Grade

Many students will begin taking the ACT or SAT in fall of junior year; the goal should be to finish SAT and ACT testing by the end of 11th grade. Most of our students test officially two to three times. 11th grade is also the second PSAT year. Again, significant preparation for the PSAT is not necessary unless there’s a goal to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship. Midway through 11th grade is a good time to formulate a preliminary college list and to schedule visits over school breaks if not already underway. Your child will want to put particular effort into studying for AP tests in the winter and spring terms, if applicable. Spring term of 11th grade is the time to start the main Common Application essay, which typically undergoes several drafts (essay prompts are typically released in February or March for the following year). Summer is also the time to finish up college visits and finalize your child’s school list, which should include a few “very likely” schools, several “just-right” schools, and a few reach schools. The Common App opens in early August, and your child can start filling in forms and writing responses to the supplemental essay prompts listed under individual schools’ pages in the application. All of this hard work over the summer allows your child to enjoy a senior year that is not entirely consumed by college applications. Moreover, January of 11th grade is the time to be seriously considering and beginning to apply for pre-college summer programs.

12th Grade

Early September is the point to make any last decisions about Early Action or Early Decision schools, as some colleges’ deadline is as early as November 1. After that, with deadlines for each of your child’s schools written down, you and your child should sit down with a calendar and work out a schedule for doing the rest of their application work. If your child is interested in applying to arts or conservatory programs — for instance, in theater or visual art — they also must look up those application requirements early in September, as those programs sometimes have earlier deadlines than the rest of the college. Early September also is the time to recruit teachers to write recommendations; many teachers get multiple requests, and it’s best to give them as much time as possible to compose their letters. Later in September, as applications progress, can be a time to interview with representatives from each college that offers them. Application deadlines will stretch from November to February; after that, the waiting is the hardest part. By May, your child will have some difficult but happy decisions to make as a result of your college planning efforts.

If you’re starting to think about college planning for your family, our team can help to organize a customized plan.

Please contact Brad Hoffman or Faya Hoffman by using this contact form.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed. and Educational Consultant, and Elizabeth Walters, Private Tutor and Writing Coach.

Managing The Awkward Preschool Year

November 26, 2017 Brad Hoffman 1 Comment

Each school year we help parents to manage the awkward preschool year. What does it mean? What are the considerations?

For most private schools in New York City, the turning 5 birthday cutoff for kindergarten applications is September 1. The public school birthday cutoff is December 31. Therefore, families whose children have fall and early winter birthdays miss the opportunity to apply to private schools until the following school year. But it’s not quite that simple, and if your child has a summer birthday, it still may be necessary to wait out an additional admissions season depending on the school and specific group of children enrolling, since they may skew heavily to birthdays in the first half of the calendar year. It’s generally not advantageous for a child to be the youngest in the grade for a variety of reasons, so parents and schools have to carefully manage this situation, thus the awkward preschool year.

Most families faced with this situation are typically debating between two options: 1) staying in their current preschool and repeating the pre-K year, or 2) enrolling in their local public school and starting kindergarten with the goal of applying out for the following year and repeating kindergarten in a private school. A third but less popular option is to transition to a new preschool environment for that additional preK year.

Like everything else in life, there are pros and cons to either option. Staying at your current preschool certainly offers an additional year that’s play-based, nurturing, and predictable. However, if your child is ready to start a more academic program, a public kindergarten may make better sense. This public school year offers young learners the opportunity to begin formal academic work with reading and math as well as having the opportunity to adapt to a full school day schedule with greater academic and behavioral expectations. It’s also true that your child will likely be one of the younger children in the class, but if you’re treating this as an enrichment year, then it’s generally not such a big concern. Some children may feel too challenged or frustrated by this larger, academic kindergarten setting, in which case it may not be the best choice. If a family chooses to stay at their current preschool, and their child is ready for some additional challenge, then they can always supplement instruction with one of our early childhood or elementary teachers to start working on reading, writing and math skills.

A common worry for parents considering a year of public school kindergarten surrounds the application process for private schools for the following September. Parents worry that without a private preschool director or exmissions director, there won’t be anyone to advocate for them. While it’s true that most families aren’t able to access much support from their previous preschools, this has never gotten in the way of successful private school acceptances with our families. In some ways, it’s arguably less complicated because you’re now a “free agent” rather than part of an entire 4s class that needs to be placed with overlapping preferences and agendas.

In an ideal world, families wish they did not find themselves in this position and often ask, “What could we have done differently in this situation?” Sometimes there is an option to better manage the birthday situation in the 2s and/or 3s, which is an easier classroom experience to repeat within the same program. Some preschools may have a “younger 2s or 3s” versus “older 2s or 3s” in order to better differentiate the experience. A select few schools also offer a “junior kindergarten” option for students turning 4 by September 1. Otherwise, there’s not much more you can do to control the situation short of precise timing of pregnancies, which is common talk among New York City parents who wish they could control everything, but that’s often not a realistic or practical approach.

When we meet with parents feeling left out, worried, and questioning their decisions while their peers move on to a seemingly clearer next chapter, we encourage them to take a deep breath and take the long view. Things aren’t always as they seem. Because we work on such a wide range of student cases and placements — ranging from mainstream (day and boarding) to specialized (day and boarding) to therapeutic (day and boarding) — we meet parents going down all sorts of paths, with children at all different age levels, that they never imagined when they thought about their initial “Plan A” for kindergarten. So instead of feeling left out and worried, we encourage you to settle into the situation, and bask in this extra year of early childhood education! We’ll help you through it!

By Faya Hoffman, M.A. and Educational Consultant, and Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed. and Educational Consultant.

Brad and Faya are both Professional Members of IECA, TABS, EMA, SBSA, NACAC, and NATSAP specializing in school placements from nursery school through graduate school, including mainstream (day and boarding schools), specialized (day and boarding schools), and therapeutic (day and boarding schools). Brad and Faya work in partnership with each family to manage successful school transitions at every level and over time.

Counseling Out With Compassion

March 5, 2017 Brad Hoffman 1 Comment

Counseling out is an unfortunate reality of private schooling. By design, private schools allow families to choose a particular school environment that adheres to certain standards or values and provides certain services, facilities, and curricula. The school community is carefully constructed and there are procedures in place to make swifter changes if the school feels a particular student or faculty member is no longer a good fit. That counseling out happens shouldn’t really be a surprise, yet families who find themselves in this situation are often completely shocked. If a family started at a particular school in kindergarten with the intention of staying through its entire program (however many grades that particular school may have), and then is asked to leave mid-program, it’s often devastating news. Generations of family members may have graduated from that school. A family’s entire social network may be connected to that school. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and often it’s not. Schools have so many tools and resources available to them for managing these situations and, if necessary, counseling out with compassion.

Students who are having learning difficulties don’t just suddenly start to have these challenges. Therefore, it’s critical to have clear grade-level standards for benchmarking a student’s skills and a system for communicating this information to parents. Many private schools prefer not to communicate reading levels, for example, because they fear parents will misuse the information. That could be true, but for struggling students, especially, it’s really important to be able to share with a parent what’s expected at a certain point in the school year relative to current levels of performance. If a child is working below grade level expectations, a clear intervention plan should be developed and documented for all stakeholders. Data comes in lots of forms so teachers should keep a portfolio of work samples, observational notes, standardized test scores, and informal assessments (i.e. running records, exit cards). This data becomes incredibly valuable in mitigating a family’s surprise if/when the school situation is no longer sustainable.

In a public school setting, there are certain expectations about designing and documenting systematic, evidence-based interventions, adhering to a transparent due process with parents, and providing the necessary resources for differentiated instruction. Private schools may take similar approaches, but they aren’t legally bound to them in most cases. Each private school establishes its own protocols for benchmarking, communicating data to parents, managing a response to intervention (RTI) process, and formally meeting with parents and outside professionals. Private schools can insist that a family provide certain supplemental resources in order for their child to continue in the program. Private schools can also terminate a student’s enrollment mid-year or not renew a student’s contract for the following year if they feel a child’s behavior or emotionality is too disruptive or the learning needs are beyond what they feel they have the resources to manage well.

Having a clear protocol in place for meeting with families and any private professionals involved in supporting the family is imperative. Educational problem solving is best done as a multidisciplinary team, so psychologists, psychiatrists, educational consultants, OTs, Speech and Language Therapists, and special education attorneys, among other professionals, are important allies. If everyone maintains a laser focus on helping the child to succeed, then a successful partnership can be easily established, and there may well be room for many manageable interventions. If the team is working collaboratively and clearly communicating with one another and the parents, then escalated problem solving can be handled compassionately and effectively. We’ve certainly had experiences where the entire team, parents included, agree that a placement is no longer in the child’s best interest and we work together to plan for a transition.

Unfortunately, there are just as many situations that do not unfold with this level of partnership, and for those families it’s a traumatic experience. These parents often experience all five stages of grief in a compressed time frame: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These situations can be messier yet if the relationship between the family and school has become combative, but there are best practices for managing this counseling out with compassion, too. First, schools should embrace outside professionals as allies in helping to successfully transition the student. Angry and defensive parents can often better hear the recommendations of private professionals. Second, schools should designate a point person for facilitating communication and admissions documentation. In some instances, having all communication facilitated by an educational consultant to avoid negative interactions between the parents and the school is most effective and pleasant for everyone. Third, schools should avoid micromanaging the next placement. If a family is being asked to leave, then a school should really facilitate rather than impose more control over the family’s situation, otherwise, families only become more distressed. Finally, schools should remain focused on the child’s needs, and advocate with efficacy.

Counseling out with compassion can be achieved if we start by planning for success. Educators and parents want to see their students succeeding, and they generally want to work in partnership. If something doesn’t seem quite right, it’s important that teachers, administrators and parents have courageous conversations in a timely manner. Interventions should be developed with transparency and an open mind so that we bolster a child’s success. If interventions aren’t working, we should learn from these experiences, and make appropriate adjustments. If too many adjustments are regularly needed, and it’s become clear that the environment is no longer the best fit, then a conversation about exploring other school environments is appropriate. While counseling out can be difficult topic to broach, it can also be an incredible turning point in a student’s school career.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard, Inc.

On March 8, 2017, Brad Hoffman participated in a professional panel discussion with Dr. Evan Flamenbaum, Dr. Larry Hess, and Bonnie Spiro Schinagle, Esq. about educational, clinical, and legal considerations regarding counseling out. The event was designed for school professionals, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and pediatricians and took place at the West End Collegiate Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Developing Executive Function Skills Authentically

February 27, 2017 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Students trying to go from good to great in their school work will benefit from employing strong executive function skills. Developing these skills authentically happens over time and inherently includes behavior modification. Therefore, these skills, which include the ability to plan and organize time and work; the ability to initiate and complete a task; the ability to shift gears/sets depending on the situation; the ability to organize or impose order on work and play storage spaces; and the ability to self-monitor performance and attention are best taught in contextualized, meaningful, and authentic situations. There is no scripted curriculum. Developing executive function skills is all about developing situational intelligence and planning with the end in mind. Students need opportunities to develop lots of different strategies, much like tools in a toolbox, so that they can customize their approach, or “fix”, as each situation presents itself. Our most successful students ultimately demonstrate reflective, strategic thinking that develops along with a student’s increased metacognitve awareness. This work is facilitated by a skillful team with expertise in pedagogy, psychology and executive function coaching, and it progresses through modeling, guided instruction, and independent practice.

Our faculty at My Learning Springboard believes strongly in meeting students where they are and building on their strengths in order to develop or strengthen their executive function skills. It is this approach that puts our students ahead of the rest. Many students struggle for reasons that go beyond the content itself, which includes not being able to manage the meta-work of being a student. They struggle to maintain their train of thought when they don’t have their materials clearly organized and easily available and have to expend time and energy looking for them. Students are often technically aware they have a big test coming up on Thursday, but, while it seems too far away to begin studying on Monday, it looms as an unapproachable, discouraging impossibility on Wednesday night. These students could master their subject content if they could better master time management, work prioritization, their physical or digital workspace, and their ability to plan into the future and sub-task.

The goal of an executive function coach is to help students to identify inefficiencies or pitfalls in their strategic planning and to cooperatively develop and implement systems that mitigate these challenges. For example, a student who struggles with implementing quotations in his essays will be coached throughout the writing process on developing organizational skills, not only for him/herself, but for the essay as well. We might try keeping a quote journal for future reading so the process of analyzing quotes in writing can be both practiced and streamlined. Another student may need to schedule regular meetings with a teacher for support before, during or after school, but making that happen could be an overwhelming process. An executive function coach might cooperatively review the student’s calendar/schedule and help identify when the meetings could occur, as well as guide the student to respectfully initiate the request. We help our students develop their executive function skills by ‘seeing’ into the future and using that information to inform their current and future actions. And while many students are technologically savvy, they aren’t necessarily technologically strategic or digitally organized. Optimizing applications so that they’re assistive and identifying new technologies to facilitate effectiveness is often a huge part of our approach to executive function coaching.

Developing executive function skills authentically through strategic use of school work, extracurricular activities, and responsibilities at home is the best and most meaningful approach for students. Our goal is for strategic and timely practices to become internalized for each student, which happens over time. Once internalized, the student should be able to independently determine, for example, when teacher meetings are necessary, know how to budget time effectively and know how to attack the metacognitive challenges of learning. An executive function coach can help set clearly communicated expectations to both the student and his or her family as well as to form a culture of accountability over time.

By Brad Hoffman, Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist, and Laurie Gross, Educational Consultant and Reading Specialist.