First Jewish therapeutic day school in U.S. will serve students with mental health challenges.

Children with significant mental health needs, such as anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), emotional dysregulation and/or a history of suicidal ideation or self-injurious behaviors, often require the specialized expertise and support offered in a therapeutic school. Currently, there is no Jewish therapeutic day school for students with mental health challenges in the United States.

At the SINAI Schools Annual Dinner, on Feb. 23, SINAI announced it will be establishing Adir Academy, a Jewish therapeutic high school that will be located in New York City and will provide services year-round for students suffering from significant emotional challenges.

“There has been a tremendous increase in mental health needs that is unprecedented—higher rates of suicide, higher rates of deaths and despair,” said Dr. David Pelcovitz, a renowned psychologist and expert in child and adolescent health who served as the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair in Jewish Education at Yeshiva University and director of psychology at North Shore University Hospital-NYU School of Medicine.

Research shows that:

• 1 in 7 teenagers will experience a mental disorder
• 22% of teens have seriously considered attempting suicide
• 42% of teens experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness

The Jewish community has not been spared from this crisis. While both Jewish mainstream day schools and special education schools like SINAI have made significant strides in recent years to enhance counseling services, every year many students must leave their Jewish school and go to a secular therapeutic school to receive the help they need.

“For a family already struggling with the pain and fear that comes with helping their child through a mental health crisis, the lack of a Jewish educational option for their child compounds the family’s suffering,” said Rabbi Dr. Yisrael Rothwachs, Leo Brandstatter z”l Dean of SINAI Schools.

“Families are faced with the difficult decision of having their child continue to struggle every day or taking them out of the Jewish community to put them in a school that can help with their emotional challenges,” said Dr. Lisa Kotler, medical director of the NYU Child Study Center, New Jersey Practice. “This is a painful choice for families and their children who often already feel isolated. Leaving the Jewish community for school further isolates them from peers and Judaism.”

“Families in need frequently turn to SINAI when their child is struggling in a mainstream school, thinking that we will be able to help no matter what type of challenge the child faces,” said Arielle Greenbaum Saposh, associate managing director of SINAI Schools. “However, SINAI’s current schools serve students with developmental and complex learning disabilities and are not designed with the necessary infrastructure to support students with significant mental health challenges”

“Every time we need to tell a parent that there is no school in the Jewish community that is right for their child, we know we are adding to their pain and it is heartbreaking,” said Sam Fishman, managing director of SINAI Schools. “This is what drove us to start exploring the possibility of opening a Jewish therapeutic school several years ago, and now we are excited to share with the community that we plan to open Adir Academy.”

“SINAI’s decades of experience building successful schools that create customized plans to meet individual academic, emotional, and social needs has given us the requisite experience, infrastructure, and resources to develop this new school from the ground up,” said Greenbaum Saposh. Kotler concurs: “SINAI is the ideal organization to take on this next challenge.”

“The addition of Dr. Rebecca Eliason—a renowned psychologist with extensive expertise shaping educational programs to meet the needs of children with emotional challenges—to our leadership team significantly enhances our experience and knowledge base in this area,” said Rabbi Rothwachs. Eliason will serve as associate dean, Therapeutic Schools of SINAI, and co-founder, Adir Academy.

“As a therapeutic school, Adir Academy will help students with depression, anxiety, OCD and other mental health challenges that make it hard for them to be successful at and sometimes even to attend school,” said Eliason. “The challenges these students face can lead to severe emotional distress, difficulty forming and maintaining social connections, or other types of struggles that impact the student’s well-being.”

At Adir Academy, students will receive significant amounts of individual, group and family therapy. In addition to a highly trained mental health team, every teacher and every member of the staff will be trained to provide high-quality therapeutic support throughout the day.

“Working on therapeutic skills in real-life situations helps students to generalize the skills they are learning,” said Eliason. “Students will not only be working toward their therapeutic goals in therapy sessions with the clinical team, but also throughout the school day, including in college
preparatory classes, Judaic studies, extracurricular activities and social interactions.”

It is also important that students are challenged and supported academically so they can reach their potential. “Continuing their secular and Judaic academic progress at whatever level works best for them will make it easier for them to transition back to a mainstream school when they are ready,” said Eliason.

To best meet the intensive therapeutic needs of the student population, Adir Academy will be a stand-alone, year-round high school. “While children at any stage may be impacted by mental health challenges, rates of many of the most dangerous concerns, including self-harm and suicidal ideation significantly increase in adolescence,” said Eliason. “We have to step in.”

“Before SINAI Schools, families with children with disabilities needed to choose between the necessary education and support their children required and a Jewish education,” said Greenbaum Saposh. “Today, families of children with mental health challenges are facing a similar gut-wrenching decision. We are calling on the broader Jewish community to help us change this. Join us in creating the first Jewish therapeutic day school for students with mental health challenges.”

To learn more and discover how you can help, visit adiracademy.org.

Meet Dr. Rebecca Eliason

Dr. Rebecca Eliason served as head of school and director of psychological services at Barnstable Academy—a college prep school that provides academic excellence in a warm and supportive environment designed to help students thrive.

“Dr. Eliason revamped our school culture, counseling, student support services, executive functioning programming, parent involvement, and ultimately, nearly doubled our enrollment,” said Ashley Crowley, head of school, Barnstable Academy. “She stands for excellence as a leader and her intelligent and genuinely caring approach comes through, always. She gave her whole heart to Barnstable and supported our sister Fusion schools through her work with both local campus administrators and nationwide high-level training to further enhance Fusion’s individualized approach. I am thankful for her collaboration, expertise and guidance.”

Eliason’s success at Barnstable Academy made her a sought-after consultant and presenter. She has conducted school leadership trainings, parent workshops and practical staff development for secular and Jewish day schools and consults with schools to help them meet the needs of individual students.

In her private practice, Eliason is widely recognized for her success in developing creative approaches and plans for children who are struggling with mental health challenges. She works with students and their families to create out-of-the-box approaches to help students succeed in their current schools. When their current school environment is unable to meet a student’s needs, she works with them to find alternatives and supports them through the transition to or from more specialized programs like therapeutic schools.

Eliason is the founder and president of the board of Kfar Shelanu (Kfar), a nonprofit Jewish after-school program for children who are not currently in yeshiva day schools. She is also working with Kinyan on their Master Teacher Skills Assessment, which is focused on developing classroom management skills and strategies to increase student success in mainstream classrooms.

Eliason is a member of the Bergen County High School Admissions Committee and a member of the board of TABC. She previously served on the board of
Yeshivat Noam.