Eagle Hill School (CT)
Monday, July 5th, 2004
Eagle Hill School
45 Glenville Road
Greenwich, CT 06831
203-622-9240
203-622-0914 fax
www.eaglehillschool.org/
Sanford Shapiro’s Review of Eagle Hill School
Schools with Services for Language-based Learning Disabilities (LLD)
Schools with Services for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
My son is 12 years old. This is his first year at Eagle Hill. He is thriving. Eagle Hill is an educational system that takes the total child into consideration. Language based issues remain a challenge for him but he is learning in a non threatening, supportive environment. Already his vocabulary has expanded substantially.
This is a great comment, thanks. Please update us as he moves through with any other thoughts you have on any aspect of the school.
My son is 13 now. He has finished his second year at Eagle Hill in Southport, CT. He continues to thrive and gain more confidence in his academic abilities. He understands he learns differently but nonetheless can learn. I cannot say he likes reading anymore than when he began but homework is much less of an issue now. His vocabulary has continued to grow, and we love to see him smile when he puts together words that he knows we recognize as advancement for him. The staff is 100% dedicated to helping your child reach their potential.
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am still waiting to see if you have any room for my son Ronald to join your school. He was refered to your school by Dr. Kruger in westport, CT. A wonderful man, who said my son would benefit from this school. can you please let me know when your next open house is?
Pamela, why are you posting that here? This is not the school, this is a resource listing. You need to contact the school directly.
Teresa, I have a daughter who has been attending a junior boarding in Virg. for the past 3 years. She will be graduating this year, and we are looking at other boarding schools with a similar structured and supportive environment to take her through her high school years. I’m curious and trying to get some opinions from other parents about some of the schools that we are applying to, such as Eagle Hill, Kildonan (Amenia, NY), Forman (Litchfield, CT), and Landmark (Prides Crossing, MA). While seeking out Eagle Hill, did you have the opportunity to visit any of these other schools; and if so, what were their differences? We have made application to these schools and plan to interview and visit in February. Now days, schools all look so wonderful and make interesting claims on their lovely website. Of course, my 13-year-old is judging whether she likes the school by the “looks” of the pictures on their website or brochures we received! My concerns and curiosity is, of course, far deeper than her observations. We live in Kansas, and these schools couldn’t be further from home, so the boarding aspect is very important to us as well as the academic environment. If the boarding side of the school is not satisfactory, then I will have an unhappy daughter who wants to come home every weekend, which is nearly impossible and far too expensive. Just for the record and to give you some understanding what we are dealing with, my daughter has a written expression disorder, reading disorder, mathematics disorder, ADHD and difficulty processing language at a normal rate; and the school she has been attending for the past 3 years admits students ages 7-14, average to above-average intelligence, learning different, has organizational difficulties; this school is not appropriate for behavior disordered or emotionally disturbed children. Thanks in advance to you or anybody out there that can give us your honest observations, opinions, and wisdom concerning these schools or even schools we haven’t considered or made application to. Susan
Susan,
I am assuming your daughter attends the Oakland School in Virginia, an excellent junior boarding school for kids with Learning differences.
The schools you mentioned - Eagle Hill (MA), Kildonan (NY), Forman(CT) and Landmark(MA) all deal with LD students and will continue to provide similar remedial, supportive services. I have placed students at each of these schools and have recently visited their campuses. They are all wonderfully caring places. However, it is very important for you and your daughter to visit each of these schools to get a feel for the culture and the the specific kinds of kids who attend. Ask to see classes, go to the school meeting, stay for lunch, talk with as many teachers, students, administrators as possible to truly understand the focus of each school. Each school will have it’s own unique “feel” and you and your daughter will need to determine the school where she will be the most comfortable academically and socially. There are other boarding schools out there that may be appropriate for her, but you may get overwhelmed if you try to visit more than 4. Good luck!
Tom O’Dell
Susan: Tom’s advice is excellent and all I would add is that there are curricular differences between these schools and it’s useful for you to dig a bit deeper to understand what each school offers, how it differs from the others, and which might be the best fit for your daughter. Read Sandy Shapiro’s reviews at this site for a bit more on this but also gather your own set of notes and information.
The boarding question is a good one as well and success there is more difficult to call ahead of time as it depends on the particular kids your daughter ends up rooming and/or living with, the houseparents of that particular dorm, and how the living situation feels to her. It would not hurt to, on a visit to each school, tour the dorms and talk with houseparents as well.
If you do visit these and/or other schools I’d be very happy to share your notes and observations with other parents here at this web site. Get in touch with me directly when the time comes: richard at ldresouces dot com.
Susan, to add to what Tom and Richard have said: A good friend of mine Alice Jackson, who is one of the most respected ed. consultants in the country once said to me that “we send kids to people, not programs.” Childrens’ temperaments and personalities have to be considered as well. Discover the personality of the school as well. As long as you have choices, take a look at the backgrounds of key people in the school, sit in on classes, and ask questions. Discovering how long the average length of stay for faculty has been may shed light on how inspired and satisfied they are, certainly an important barometer. When considering a boarding school, the visit by you and your daughter will be critical. As Richard said, there are differences in aspects of curriculum and there are differences in instructional approaches. A visit also gives you an opportunity to look into the faces of the kids and get a gut sense of fit. Finally I would ask different people at each school what are the strengths and challenges of the place. You can find out if people at all levels of the school (besides the admissions department) are in agreement or even aware of the goals and direction. As you said, you don’t want an unhappy kid looking for plane tickets each weekend. Best of luck and keep us posted.
Hi Susan,
I just came back to the site today, 3/9/07. Our son will be transitioning to high school at the end of this school year. In 2004 we relocated from Albany, NY to Fairfield County, CT so he could attend Eagle Hill Southport. We are happy to report he will begin at Forman in September, 2007. Once more we will be relocating about a half hour north of our current location so he can attend Forman as a day student. For our family boarding is not an option.
We looked at Marvelwood in South Kent, CT and Forman in Litchfield, CT. What I can share with you is that the visits made all the difference in helping us decide which environment would work best for him. After visiting both schools it was clear Forman would be the best fit for our son. He took an immediate liking to Forman. The curriculum is college preparatory with a small class size and a supportive environment. Incorporated within the curriculum is a tutorial class in the learning center where students focus on what needs remediation. Eagle Hill Southport is an environment that focuses on remediation. Forman focuses on college preparation and incorporates the necessary tools to find success.
If your daughter ends up at Forman we will have to connect. Either way, good luck, the process is arduous but well worth it when all is said and done. Take care, Theresa
PS - this was my the second attempt at writing this. I typed up one response and lost it??, but perhaps it made it through. I apologize if there are 2 responses from me. In addition I have a request for the person who monitors the site — Can you remove my last name form the previous correspondence? I did not consider that when my name was goggled this site would appear. I would like to offer my son privacy. Thanks in advance for your help with this.
Thanks, for taking my last name away!!
Of course, no problem.
I am considering a possible move to the NYC area, and would be working in Manhattan. My 10-year old son is Dsylexic and ADHD and is currently in his second year the wonderful Lab School of Washington in DC. He is doing fantastic and we have seen terrific progress in all of his reading and written expression challenges. He qualifies in the average to above average intelligence rankings based on testing and has an IEP plan in place. I am simply looking for initial recommendations on schools in the NYC area, particularly close-in CT or NY that specialize in language-based LD. Any thoughts on recommended schools this board could offer would be most appreciated.
Thank-you
HWJ: There are many schools in the area that will be possibilities. My recommendation would be to use an educational consultant who knows schools in the area and can meet you and your son and help you decide based on his learning profile and records from the Lab School (I used to know Sally Smith in a past life, fantastic woman).
HWJ: Google the Parents League of New York for their website for starters. They have a large database of New York schools and have knowledge of New York special needs Schools. Winston Prep and Churchill have a very good reputation. Richard, many parent’s are really worn thin with providing services for these children year after year. Placement consultants overcharge. They have access to the same website databse as everyone else. They direct parents to schools that parents can find themselves with parentnetworking which is free of charge. There aren’t that many available schools for these kids to begin with. Parent’s can go through the application process themselves without paying a consultant thousands of dollars to “find” a school for their child. The school will let you know if they find their program appropriate or not for your child. The only benefit perhaps of the “right” consultant is the hope that your payment of $5000 plus will minimize the competition and buy your child a placement where there are other equally qualified applicants.
Susan, I agree with everything you say except this statement:
“The school will let you know if they find their program appropriate or not for your child.”
There is where an outside view can help. Many schools have aggressive admissions people (read: marketing people) and will take students who aren’t the best fit to fill beds/seats.
Not all schools are like this but some are. A third party can help sort this out, consultant, other parent, tutor, or whoever.
I’m not plugging consultants, I am plugging finding appropriate third party support.
I am looking for a school for my son with ADHD and learning disabilities. He is currently in 3rd grade. We are looking to move back east. We are going to look at Landmark and Eagle Hill school in the next couple of months. Does anyone have a private school where their son / daughter attends that has programs to help children with learning disabilities, but not everyone who attends the school has a learning disability?
I am looking for a boarding school in New England for my 15 year old son diagnosed with NVLD. He needs structure and motivation. He is not being challenged in West Hartford public schools. He can read well,but has poor writting skills. He is really disorganized and avoids homework at all costs. He is of average intelligence. He is extremely verbal and an auditory learner without any behavioral difficulties. Any ideas?
Thanks, Anita
Hi- I am moving to CT and have a son who has ADHD and significant executive function and processing speed issues. It seems like I can only find schools that cater to kids with language based disabilities. Do either of the Eagle Hill, CT schools handle ADHD and NVLD? Are there any other schools that I should consider? Thank you.
Eagle Hill, Forman and most of the schools that have traditionally catered to only kids with language based LD have shifted to working with kids with a broader range of issues. I would look into Forman for sure.
Are you only considering boarding schools or are you considering day schools as well?
Christine, how old is your son? The Eagle Hill schools in CT are elementary through middle school and the one in MA is high school as is Forman.
We are the parents of a sixteen year old , who is in need of a program such as Eagle hill school. She has missed many years of schools and should be in the 11 grade this year this year but unfortunately she will not be.
We have finally been able to get our public school to fund a school program for our daughter. We would like for her to attend the eagle hill . We would love to find parents who have their child at eagle hill and their public school has funded the program. How does a parent get around the fact that eagle hill cannot accept funding from a public school. We would like to find precidence in this respect. unfortunately we (parents) do not have the income to pay out of pocket and we have to depend on our school to fund our child’s school program. We would like to know how other parents might have accomplish this . Have they had their school district fund them and then the parents pay the school? Please excuse my ignorance but there are not many schools out there that can provide the kind of program that eagle hill can provide it’s students and our child is in dire need of such a school program otherwise she will end up without an education and no work skills as her two older brothers have. Unfortunately public school are very resistent and providing it’s students the right type of learning for children with Ld, autisum ect. I welcome any feedback d r.
My wife, who runs the academic support program at The Gunnery just told me that the problem is that many towns require that all teachers who interact with your child at these private schools be certified. Not all teachers at private, LD-support schools have special ed certification so Eagle Hill may be simply saying that they don’t want to deal with this issue because it will force them to hire only certified teachers.
This is not a slight of Eagle Hill, most of the private schools who run LD support programs use uncertified teachers but not all towns get bent about this.
Diana,
First of all, Eagle Hill in Connecticut does not take kids in the 11th grade so it wouldn’t be appropriate for your daughter even if they did take district funding. There are a number of LD high schools that do accept district funded students so I suggest you start by identifying some schools that have the right program for your daughter (this website has lots of good info on possible schools) and then call the Admissions offices and ask if they take funded students. If your district is balking at agreeing to fund the placement, you may want to get an educational advocate or attorney to help you. There is an organization called COPAA (www.copaa.com) that will help you find one of these professionals.
Good luck!!
Wow. It’s been three years since I’ve visited this site, and I’m really impressed with everything that’s happening out there in the field of parenting the LD child. My son attends Greenwood School, which is one we never would have found without this site, and he absolutely loves it. Greenwood is a junior boarding school, though, so I’m back here searching for a high school.
Here’s my experience: NVLD is fast becoming the next level of service among all these schools. Three years ago, few schools even mentioned it. Thanks to the fine work of the Shapiros, I found Greenwood, which does not initially appear to serve NVLD, but actually does an amazing job of it. My son’s social, emotional, writing, organizational, hygienic, and math skills have all made a 180 degree turn around. He has also found specific interests in music and computers that he had not had the time to explore until he attended Greenwood.
I encourage anyone on this site to further read the details in the Shapiro site. That site helped me narrow my choices, and the moment that my son visited Greenwood, he knew he was home.
Hi,
My son started at Eagle Hill in Hardwick Mass this fall. He is 16, NVLD and ADD he is has made huge improvements. Eagle Hill in Mass absoultely does take disctrict funding. Give them a call the teachers and ciriculum is phenomenal!!!
Dear Susie,
Great news about your son’s successes at Greenwood!! I was the Head of School there 7 years ago so I know first hand how Greenwood, and other schools like it, can completely turn kids around in so many different areas.
Your point about NLD is an interesting one. NLD is such a broad term and can mean so many different things. So if a school says they only accept kids with a language based learning difference and not NLD, I think you should still look into that school further. Just be very honest and upfront with the school about your child’s specific language and non-verbal needs. You’re right about Greenwood; the school is not specifically geared to working with NLD boys, but the place is so supportive in so many different ways and it has a communication class that can address social issues. With that said, there are other schools that accept only kids with NLD. This website is a good place to start in terms of identifying those schools. Good luck with the high school selection process!!!
Has anyone else had experience with the Eagle Hill School in MA. My son is 18 and was diagnosed with NLD when he was 12. Our public school system was unable to support his learning style. We did not accept his dipolma this year and are looking for a placement at Eagle Hill next year. This is his last chance for sucess in high school and we want to make sure that we are making the correct decision. My son that Eagle Hill would be a good match.
we accepted our 18 yo sons diploma despite the school not providing for his LD’s, now we are trying to find a college to support him and it is difficult and expensive.
Suzanne,
This thread is for the CT. Eagle Hill school, which is a K-8 school, not high school. It’s a completely different school than the one in Hardwick (MA).
I wish one of the schools would change the name. It can be confusing.