White River Academy has some kind and dedicated staff however their academic program has serious problems. Our son has a high IQ and was always ahead at previous schools despite behavior issues. During his 14 months at WRA they only had him complete 2 high school credits dispite our constant expression of concern.
We finally pulled him and at the new school, within 10 months he had approx 14 H/S credits completed. We heard other parents had expressed similar concerns on parent weekends. Our son also told us that the school told the boys not to talk about what went on there and that he had felt he was being encouraged toward the Mormon faith. He said there was only a few courses to choose from. Just be aware, thats all. At the time, they had a policy of keeping a kid from doing school work when he acted up. Long after our son stopped acting up, he was still not getting anything done and they were defensive about his school accomplishments. I did not feel they abused him physically or mentally and they may have helped him a little emotionally. I'm sure you can find a better shool out there with wasting thousands with no school credits.
Again I'll say they had some caring people, but I don't know who is running the school that their academics were so poor. My son has been gone a year now from WRA and is a success story. He's come so far at the new school and we welcome him back to our lives. Hang in their parents. It can happen. Do try to pick the right school. Start with some with actual accreditation and licensing even if you have to pay a bit more and many aren't more expensive.
Sources:
- maddysmith's testimony (Yellow Pages)
- Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)
