  Take an interest in success rates of the boarding schools. A high-quality program should have a systematic method of evaluating success and should be able to provide parents with all information they are interested in. If a school is oath to tell you about their success rates or can only provide anecdotal evidence of program effectiveness, this is a quite good sign that the results aren’t too impressive.
Have a talk with some parents with a teen in the program. This will ensure that you don’t get swindled by a fast-talking salesperson. If a school is confident about the service they are providing to their current clients, they should be happy to let you speak with them. If they make excuses or claim that they want to protect the anonymity of their clients, you can rest assured they are bluffing.
Take a tour of the programs you are considering. This will give you an opportunity to evaluate the conformity of the facilities, the professionalism and competency of the staff, and most importantly, the contrast between new students and soon-to-be graduates.
Don’t make your decision on the base of either pure emotion or logic. Don’t overreact to an emotional situation. In case your teen’s behavior represents a consistent problem, it may be the time to act. Nevertheless, you should make that decision when you have come back to a stable state of mind.
Remember that ignoring the problem will make it worse. Though some problems may go away on their own with a period of time, serious behavioral and emotional problems in adolescents may appear dormant for a time, but will always appear again if allowed to continue unsolved.
If you understood that your attempts to control your child’s behavior are not working, it is a very time to stop and reevaluate the situation. Stop bumping your head into a wall and get help.
Make sure you understand what you are paying for. The prices of many high quality programs are in the range of $3,000-$4,000/month. You have to realize that paying thousands more per month isn’t definitely going to change your child’s behavior any better or faster.
Look for a program that involves the whole family, as a family is a system. When one part of a system has a problem, it affects other parts in the system. In actual fact, most problems within a system involve the interaction of two or more parts. This concerns the family too. It is vital that parents and even siblings where possible get involved in the change process.
Don’t tell your child you are going to put them in a program. If you have made a decision to place your child in a treatment program, or even if you are only considering doing so, it’s best to keep it to yourself. Discussing this decision with your teen may encourage your child to run away.
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