Therapeutic Boarding School in Missouri

Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks:
Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks (CALO), located in Lake Ozark, Missouri, is a specialized adolescent residential treatment setting for boys & girls (ages 12-18). At CALO, we with work a small window of student issues focusing specifically on issues of emotion, attachment and trauma. At CALO relationships are the primary change agent. All treatment is connected to and motivated by relationships. Relationships with family, CALO staff, and CALO peers are what drive change.

Specialized Residential Treatment Programs for Boys & Girls (Ages 12-18)
School at CALO focuses on the needs of the learner. Our philosophy is that sometimes the shortest distance between two points is the long way around. This philosophy is meant to remind us that the learner must have their emotional and personal needs met in preparation for academic studies.

Academic time consists of 2 to 3 hour sessions which are set throughout the day, with adequate breaks in between. This facilitates various learning styles and divides school into productive smaller blocks. Students attend school 20 to 25 hours per week. This includes regular class time, community outings, Saturday school, and special field trips.

Canine Program:
Students better understand Trust of Control when they learn how to train, discipline, lead, and regulate canine behavior. As students struggle with poor behavior from the dogs and the difficulties of training the canines, students are helped to understand frustrations their parents have similarly felt.

This process lays the foundation of students feeling empathy for their parents. Empathy is the fertile soil where attachment can grow. This empathy is gained experientially, not through abstract discussion.

Education Plans:
A detailed Education Plan is created for each CALO student after a thorough review of former or current IEPs, transcripts, and all background information. A Student Interest Survey (SIS) helps us to learn your child’s unique interests and strengths.

The Learning Styles Assessment (LSA) ensures our teachers will know the multitude of modalities available in reaching and teaching your child. A Course Selection Plan (CSP) outlines classes taken and maps out curriculum choices. And finally, an Accommodations Checklist (AC) ensures your child will receive any and all needed modifications to facilitate their learning needs.

Playing Catch Up:
We specialize in helping students catch up. If your child has fallen behind their peers academically- we can help. CALO school is in session year around.

We will create a plan to re-align your student’s curriculum so that not only will they catch up, in many cases, our students work ahead to ease their transition back into a traditional school setting. We have students who have not only completed CALO curriculum; they have enrolled in college classes as well.

Three Tracks of Study:

Therapy-based Academic Track:
The focus of a Therapy-based Academic Track is to create an education plan designed to foster the emotional and therapeutic needs of the student. This is for students who have little or no HS credit and for those whose primary focus is therapeutic.

Course selection is driven by the treatment team in choosing classes that would foster communication, expression, personal enrichment, and other goals including the GED, vocational training and entering the workforce.

Restorative Academic Track:
The Restorative Academic Track is designed for students who have fallen behind their peers- for students who need to “catch up.” Up to two years of course work is evenly spread out over their anticipated stay at CALO.

Students on this track are required to use portions of personal time, weekends, and evenings to ensure meeting deadlines. This requires a large commitment from both student and family.

Standard/Collegiate Track:
The Standard/Collegiate Academic Track is designed for students who are currently at grade level and who are on par with their peers. A proportionate amount of academics is evenly spread out over their anticipated stay at CALO.

In this way, they neither fall behind nor move ahead of their peers. Sub-categories include college-bound or HS diploma.

Recreation Therapy:
The Therapeutic Recreation program at CALO utilizes experiential therapy in connection with a varied natural landscape to provide recreational opportunities that are exciting, adventurous, and therapeutic.

Individual & Family Therapy:
Weekly individual and family therapy is conducted by the treating therapist. At times a crisis or impasse in the child's progress may increase or decrease the frequency of therapy.

Therapy is conducted by therapists who have a master’s level or higher. Interventions and modalities are consistent with CALO’s clinical model and tailored to meet individual student and family needs. CALO therapists utilize cutting edge resources such as Neurofeedback and transferrable attachment with canines.

Group Therapy:
Research has shown that group therapy with adolescents is highly effective; primarily because adolescents pay overwhelming attention to the peer group and try to emulate group behavior. During adolescence, the persuasion of the peer group is often far more influential than parental advice and direction.