<p>I've found a lot of great information on this website, but much of it is focused on very competitive boarding schools. I wanted to share my story for other parents of kids who want a supportive environment at boarding school.<br>
We are lucky to live in an area with great public schools. However, the high school my daughter would attend next year is enormous and overwhelming. When we asked our daughter what she wanted in a school, she said she wanted a small school with a sense of community, where she would know everyone, like at her summer camp. First we looked at local private schools, but there was nothing in our midwestern city that seemed to fit her needs. She doesn't need the level of service of a school that is only for kids with learning disabilities, but she does need extra help and accomodations. None of the schools here seemed to hit that sweet spot.
I started searching the internet for information about boarding schools. The breakthrough was finding the search function at boardingschoolreview.com, where I could search just for schools that had programs for kids with learning disabilities. I then went through the list and eliminated schools that were only for kids with disabilities, therapeutic boarding schools, boys only schools, military schools, and religious schools. There were still a lot of schools, so I eliminated schools with over 400 students, schools with less than 75% boarders, and schools that accepted less than 40% of applicants.
I sent away for some look books and my daughter became very excited about boarding school. I called a few schools and talked to them about academic supports, student life, and arts programs. I also asked about the option of repeating 8th grade, which I thought might be beneficial for our daughter. Generally the message was that it was an option, considered on a case by case basis after the interview and application process.<br>
I stumbled upon an announcement of a boarding school fair near our home. A few of the schools on my list were going to be in attendance. We attended and my daughter's excitement about boarding school shot up some more after speaking to enthusiastic admissions officers and hearing about amazing opportunities.<br>
Once it was time to schedule visits, I started looking at school locations more critically. I decided that since there was nothing near our home, I wanted my daughter to be within a few hours drive of a family friend or relative, in case of emergencies. I also started looking at how close schools were to major airports, so we could get direct flights. </p>
<p>Continued…
In the fall, I scheduled visits to three schools that we could reach during a two-day school break. I wanted to visit on class days to get a real feel for the schools, without my daughter missing any of her own classes back home. My daughter loved all three of the schools and said she wanted to apply to all of them. Her dad and I were also impressed and felt that any of them could potentially work for her. We applied to the three schools.
My daughter’s grades were good in the first semester, but her SSAT score was low. We had not spent much time on prep for the test, mostly because we wanted her to focus on keeping those grades up, but it was lower than we expected. At this point I was lurking on College Confidential and even though we were not applying to highly selective schools, I worried that three schools was not enough. I found a 4th school to apply to and we did an interview by Skype.
We ended up going back to two schools for revisits. What it really came down to for my daughter is that one of the schools felt like home to her. Both schools had the small classes, friendly teachers, and the community atmosphere that she wanted. But her choice was the school where she felt like she had already started to make friends and felt most comfortable.
Her father and I also feel like this school is a great choice. It provide the academic support that she needs, but the head of the support program has the goal of getting students out of her program before they graduate. We were impressed by the teachers, staff, and students. We felt like this was a place where they would take good care of our daughter but also challenge her to try new things and work hard.
So now that the decision is made, there will be a million forms to fill out and plans to make and flights to arrange. Soon I will reread all the posts about how to keep in touch with your child at boarding school!
I hope this step-by-step description of our process is helpful to someone else who is at the beginning of this journey.</p>
<p>Michigan?</p>
<p>Thanks for coming out of “lurker mode” and sharing your family’s story Brdngschlmom! While you haven’t mentioned the school names, I hope you will via PM with any families who reach out to you based on this thread!</p>
<p>Thanks, SevenDad! I was inspired by your post, “One familys BS search and application process start to finish.” I would happily PM with other families. I thought it would be more helpful to describe how we made our decision than to announce what it is, since every kid has different needs. For example, my daughter cares a lot about arts programs but her main question about sports was how many she was allowed to replace with theater.</p>
<p>Dear Brdngschlmom, your daughter sounds a lot like my son - arts focus & all! Although he is a couple of years away from this process, we have started to think about it for him. While applying for my daughter this year, we kept asking ourselves if we felt that any of her schools would work for our son down the road. I think that the answer is no, although things could change. In the meantime, I’d love to hear more about what you found!</p>
<p>@Brdngschlmom your daughter sounds a lot like mine. She has a mild Learning difference and her passion is art and science. We looked for a school with great academic support and a great arts program. Her passion is drawing but she also sings professionally and wanted to continue the training. She also worried about the sports…but was happy to find out she would be able to take a dance class in its place. I’m glad you found a school! </p>
<p>where is she going?</p>
<p>We had the same situation with my son who has a couple of mild learning differences (not diagnosed until 9th grade) and ADD. He was getting by in his VERY competitive public school, but we wanted a better learning environment for him that would focus on teaching skills and strategies to overcome his LDs vs. just accommodations. We did not want a LD-specific school, but rather a prep school that had a great learning support program, plus we were looking for a good football program – that narrowed the field way down! We used an educational consultant and ended up with a great fit for him … now my Texas boy is heading home today for Thanksgiving from his school in Virginia! I’d be happy to answer any questions for boy parents who are looking for something similar (it’s an all boys boarding school). </p>