The Victor School is a private, co-ed, therapeutic day school for students in grades 8-12. The school is fully approved by the Department of Education. All teachers are licensed in content (subject) area and/or special education. The school recently (6/04) underwent a full review by the Department of Education and was found to be in full or commendable compliance in all areas, an unprecedented occurrence for any public or private school in the state of Massachusetts.

History
The Victor School was established in 1989 as the Winthrop Street School, and was later renamed to honor one of the agency founders, Ann Victor. Mrs. Victor recognized the lack of much needed mental health services for adolescents.

Philosophy
The operant philosophy of the school is that "children learn when they can". Students desire and intend to do well, but need our help to learn skills to be successful. The school employs a modified version of the Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) approach for problem solving and positive decision-making.

Students
The school serves 45 students all of whom are on I.E.P.s and present with emotionally based and/or other challenges to learning such as Depressive Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Eating Disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, School Phobia, Learning Disabilities, including Nonverbal Learning Disability, Aspergers Syndrome. Students accepted have average to superior cognitive abilities, and many meet the criteria for "gifted".

Curriculum
The school provides a rigorous academic curriculum, which is aligned with the state frameworks and coordinated with the graduation requirements of the school system in which the student lives. The curriculum is individualized according to the student's IEP with accommodations provided. There is a 1:8 teacher to student ratio, and each student is assigned a primary teacher who consults with other teachers, attends IEP meetings, and oversees the educational progress of that student.

The school is a beautiful, bright, and cheerful facility with a new science lab, library, art studio, and computer lab. There are computers in all of the classrooms.

Clinical Services
A team of masters level clinicians provides each student with daily group therapy, weekly family therapy, individual check-ins, and case management. They consult daily with teachers and support staff, and frequently with parents/guardians and collaterals in order to integrate care. The school also provides dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) for a select group of students who might benefit from this approach.

Parents
The Victor School sponsors an active Parent Advisory Group, which meets quarterly to provide information and request parent input into planning and programming. Parents are considered valuable members of the team.

Programming
The Victor School operates for 216 days with a 180 school year component and a 36-day summer component. The summer component consists of three academic classes and daily group in the morning and an internship in the community in the afternoon. The school day, both in the summer program and the regular school year, runs from 8:30-2:50. Students are transported from over thirty school districts.

The school has open enrollment, and students are referred throughout the year by the Special Education Department of the school district in which they live.

For more information call (978)266-1991 ext. 3622

Victor School Contact Information

Victor School
380 Massachusetts Avenue
Acton, MA 01720
Phone: (978) 266-1991
Fax: (978) 264-3800

Wendy Rosenblum, Director
Heidi Factor, Assistant Director/Clinical Director