Certified Educational, Recreational, and Therapeutic Schools and Programs (CERTS) is a family of adolescent schools and programs recognized nationally and internationally for providing unique, specialized treatment programs for specific student profiles and also for providing the highest standards of care in the industry.



Our mission is to create leading adolescent treatment programs through relentlessly asking the right questions, where a climate of growth and personal development inspires positive change and the desire to live true principles in our students, their families, and our staff.
 

All CERTS school and programs share some basic beliefs:

All children are basically good. “Bad kids” have simply adopted patterns and habits of making wrong choices. With the right therapeutic help, time, and patience, these patterns can be broken and replaced with new, healthier beliefs and habits.


Building a program specifically for a student profile—rather than asking them to “adapt” to all of the elements that don’t fit them as well—is the next generation of and a tremendous improvement in adolescent treatment. Ideal treatment can only be carried out when the population treated is clearly defined, understood, and their needs are specifically addressed in ways they understand.
True, lasting change comes from within. Our students, ultimately, are the ones who have to choose to accept these new patterns and habits. This will happen when our students have been prepared to a point where they embrace these new habits and reject once and for all their old, self-defeating behaviors.

An outstanding education—that is, an education that is actually exciting, varied, and yet challenging—is part of the cure. Well-prepared teachers instruct students in Drama, Art, Spanish, Music and Physical Education with a sports emphasis, in addition to the core classes of English, Math, Science, and History. These “extra” classes are important for giving students non-traditional opportunities to excel and to boost self-esteem.


Parents are an important part of the youth treatment process and must be heavily involved, both educationally and therapeutically.


Experiential therapy is a very important complement to traditional therapies.