Level 1 Therapeutic Model site

This site is an intertribal residential grant school annually enrolling over 250 students in grades 1-8 from tribes located in three states on the Northern Great Plains. From its inception in 1890, the boarding school's mission has been to provide services for young children in need of a safe and supportive living and learning environment. For over a decade, this site has used strategies centered on respecting children, structuring students' time, and providing the therapeutic benefits of a well-maintained campus. This site also has a long history of believing in each child's inherent value and potential. When Therapeutic Residential Model funding commenced at the midpoint of the 2002-2003 school year, L1 focused these new resources on strengthening and refining its program. The number of personnel positions increased from 98 to 135, with new positions principally going to dormitory staff and four Masters-level counselor positions. This increase in staff allowed L1 to proactively address the children's developmental needs. The site also adopted and implemented the Applied Humanism caregiving model. In accordance with Applied Humanism, an interview was utilized that allowed the site to identify and hire applicants possessing the attitudes and skills necessary to be good caregivers, existing staff were trained so that they understood the kind of caregiving that would be expected of them, supervision procedures and practices were implemented that supported and encouraged good caregivers and provided time-limited assistance to those who were not, and relevant agency policies and procedures were revised as needed to align with the Applied Humanism philosophy. In addition, the Morningside program was brought in to systematically address the students' academic lags in reading. The results of implementing the Therapeutic Residential Model were a reduction in behavioral incidents, a decrease in the amount of money spent on external mental health services, an increase in the retention rate, an increase in academic skills in selected areas, and higher scores on pre-post measures of adjustment, interpersonal relationships, and adaptability.