FAQ for Parents

General FAQ | FAQ for Students | FAQ for Agencies & Schools

This FAQ section attempts to recreate those questions about Penikese most frequently asked by parents considering whether the school is right for their son. These questions are not meant to be inclusive, but provide basic information while hopefully setting a reassuring feel for what dealing with Penikese might be like. We have written a similar FAQ for potential students that, along with a Penikese overview can be found below.

What do you do for medical care, especially when there is an emergency? Penikese’s remote location demands that all students be in good health and that its staff have extra training in safety policy and procedure. When routine medical care is warranted, Penikese will bring the student on shore for treatment. In the event of time-critical emergencies, Penikese will contact Medivac via 911 and emergency responders on neighboring Cuttyhunk. If Medivac is grounded by weather, the Coast Guard will dispatch its own all-weather helicopter. Penikese has been commended by Massachusetts’ Department of Education for its safety policy and procedures.

Do you accept students on medication? Penikese accepts students on medication for various behavior, attention and mood disorders, and dispenses them according to procedures monitored and approved by its state licensors. For students on medications requiring blood level monitoring, Penikese will coordinate with the referring agency and parents to insure that the monitoring takes place. Penikese routinely consults with a pediatric psychiatrist for medication assessment, review, and adjustment. Penikese cannot accept students on medications requiring ongoing medical supervision and nursing care, such as for active psychosis. In cases where an antipsychotic medication has been prescribed as an atypical antidepressant, Penikese makes a case-by-case determination as to the referral’s appropriateness.

Do students get regular therapy? All Penikese’s students receive individual therapy from the school’s state-licensed clinicians experienced in adolescent psychotherapy. However, Penikese understands the limitations of traditional talking therapies with adolescents and for these and other reasons, many of its students have failed to progress in the therapies they have had prior to coming to Penikese. Penikese therefore augments individual counseling with as many other approaches as possible, the most powerful of which include its group therapy experience, the Communication Program.

What other therapeutic approaches do you use? Whether one on one, group, or in the here-and-now between staff and students working and living together, Penikese’s goal is for students to understand what they are feeling, put those feelings into words and talk to another person about them rather than act them out. Most often, this process occurs during the many teachable moments of any given day as staff give students feedback and their honest reaction about the impact their behavior has on them, and then offers alternate strategies for the student to get what they need and want from their relationships. Progress is achieved through modeling, practice and repetition, little different than parenting.

Do students earn academic credits while they are on Penikese, and does the school award a diploma? Penikese is an accredited school and students earn academic credit as they would in any school. If indicated by their grade standing, students must also take the MCAS, which Penikese administers on the island. Although Penikese’s credits transfer, the school itself does not award high school diplomas. Sometimes, however, a student may complete the coursework necessary to earn his diploma and those cases the school district of record will issue the diploma for us to present to him.

How can Penikese meet my son’s educational needs? Penikese is a licensed and accredited special needs school whose singular focus in the classroom is to help its students overcome whatever barriers they have had to learning and experience academic success. Penikese’s special needs teachers are particularly adept at working with different student skill levels and needs, helped by Penikese’s small classroom size with typically no more than 3 or 4 students in the schoolhouse at any one time. Penikese works closely with parents and referring schools, and the boy’s IEP in formulating approaches tailored to the boy’s needs. For more information on Penikese’s academic program, Download Penikese's Educational Program Profile here.

I am concerned about my son mixing with a bad element; what is the peer culture like on Penikese? The degree to which the community knits together varies depending on the mix of students enrolled at the time, but keeping an eye this dynamic and all the boys safe is the school’s uppermost priority. Adolescent boys can be ferociously tribal, competitive and aggressive in ways ranging from normal to what we tactfully describe as exaggerated normal, and they bring with them their signature styles, cultural influences and coping strategies. It is unrealistic - and perhaps unhealthy - to expect to eradicate or overly control adolescent boy tendencies. Instead, we try to redirect this energy and behavior in more positive directions. Always helpful in this ceaseless endeavor is Penikese’s small staff-to-student ratio, the island community’s necessary interdependence, the absence of commercial TV and other cultural influences, and Penikese’s philosophy of doing treatment “with” rather than “to” its students, all of which mitigates the group-hardening dynamics characteristic of institutional programs.

Penikese sounds so isolated and remote; how is that a good thing? Although it can take some getting used to at first, much of Penikese’s success derives from its island location and remoteness. Penikese is ideally suited for those boys who need to be removed from the context of their troubles in order to begin to change. Separated from this context, students are then immersed in an authentic community of a therapeutic kind in which students can begin to develop and practice the connections, life skills, responsibility and accountability necessary to succeed as they work on successful transition back to their families, schools and community.

My son loves his TV and video games, how will he adjust to life without these things? Safe to say, all our students – and many staff – find life without TV, video games and other electronica a hardship at first. Many students come to Penikese extremely sped up, aligned to our modern culture of instant access and stimulus bombardment. For some, TV and iPods have become more than entertainment but a wall. Not having TV and other tune-out devices on the island forces our boys to turn to reading, board games, art and vocational projects for diversion and self-soothing, and in the process they also begin to notice and appreciate more of the world within and around them. Mercifully, however, the students sometimes do get to watch the tube on Penikese, whether an educational video in the schoolhouse, a movie as a treat for a good week’s work, or to watch the big games. On those occasions, TV is appreciated all the more.

What does a day on Penikese look like? A detailed sample of an average day is available in the Parent-Student Handbook. Students work and attend school 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday. Each day after breakfast half the boys go to school and the other half go to work, and in the afternoon after lunch and break these groups switch so that those who were in morning school now do afternoon work, and so forth. After the work and school day ends – usually around 6 PM, the boys have supper, snack and then a period of supervised study before lights out around 10 PM. Sunday is the students’ only day off, but it is often spent working off fines and community service or participating in structured activities set up by the staff.

What do the students do for work? Penikese’s rustic setting was purposefully chosen to promote a work-intensive atmosphere and interdependent community. Everything the students (and staff alongside them) do supports the daily operations of the school, such as chopping wood to heat the house and cook their food. Students also receive vocational training and instruction, so they can often be found working on personal and community projects in the Wood Shop.

What do the students do for recreation? Penikese’s 75-acre island setting provides a beautiful natural setting for boys to be boys. Activities vary by season and the weather and, given the season, but include traditional outdoor team sports of football, basketball and volleyball to swimming, fishing, small boating and island hikes and beachcombing. Penikese has its share of indoor diversions, too: a pool table, foosball, ping-pong, and board games.

What is the complement of the average island shift, and how are the shifts arranged? Every shift has a shift leader (usually the person with the most experience and/or clinical training), a certified special education teacher, a person skilled in the vocational arts, and fourth person willing and able to do whatever else is needed. The shifts work in stable teams and rotate over a two-week period with each of the four shifts spending 4 or 5 consecutive days on the island.

Do you have a behavior program, and if so, how does it work? Yes, but rather than call it a behavior program, we prefer to refer to this as Penikese’s program structure. This element of Penikese is detailed in the Parent-Student Handbook. Penikese uses a point system to track student choices and progress through the day, with the point sheets themselves also serving as a record for review and reflection. Students must earn a certain number of points to make a green day; failing to do so earns them a red day, two or more of which in a two week period means that they failed to earn their home visit. These same points also earn the students pay at the rate 3 cents a point which, over the course of their enrollment, goes in to savings accounts toward graduation and their pockets as home visit take home. Penikese also uses a combination of monetary fines and redemptive community service as consequences for certain infractions, and these too are tied into home visit privileges.

How long is Penikese’s program? The average placement length on Penikese is 9 months, although this can vary considerably from student to student. Upon their enrollment, all students must spend 42 days on Penikese before being eligible for a home visit, understandably the toughest part of the program for the student, and quite often, his parents, too. After this initial period, students are eligible for home visits once every two weeks thereafter. Homepasses typically last from Friday morning until Monday at noon. Occasionally students need to come in for other reasons such as doctor’s appointments, and in the later stages of their program students may be granted slightly extended stays for job and school interviews as they prepare to transition from the island.

How does Penikese decide when students are ready to graduate? To be eligible, students must complete a number of graduation requirements in different areas such as academics, life skills, and vocational arts. Other factors determining graduation timing include evaluating appropriate places to go after Penikese, and the general sense of readiness according to the student, his advocates, and Penikese.

How are student home visits handled, and what happens if things don’t go well? Student home visits are the most important part of the program where students are expected to practice whatever improved skills and abilities they are learning on the island rather than pick up where they left off before Penikese. This does not mean, however, that there won’t be bumps along the way, opportunities for families and the student to learn to manage crisis and conflict on their own. All students must sign a homepass contract before being allowed to go on their home visit; these contracts begin restrictively but as students (and parents) succeed with each one their freedoms and expectations grow. Students failing to comply with their contract can lose their next home visit. Students have mandatory phone-ins with Penikese staff who are also available to counsel the parents if things aren’t going well. From time to time Penikese’s Outreach worker will visit the home to check in and lend some support. If circumstances warrant, the Outreach worker will bring the student back to Woods Hole to be transported back the island. Parents must complete a short home visit report form, and students are drug tested and searched for contraband upon their return.

How do I stay in contact with my son, and can I visit him? Regular contact between the school, family and son is essential to placement success, and ongoing throughout his enrollment. The only time a parent ordinarily wouldn’t visit is during the student’s first 30 days, an important acclimatizing stage for the boy on the island and the family onshore. Sometime before the student’s first home visit the parents come out to Penikese see their son, have him show them around and for parents and son to review and rehearse with Penikese for the upcoming first home visit. Unless there is a compelling reason, students are not allowed to call home at first, and parents are encouraged to call and speak with school personnel as often as they need, a result of which parents become connected to and begin trusting the school, a process that grows in importance over time. Parents are also encouraged to write and send care packages (although there are guidelines, so check first!), and the students are encouraged to write home, too. Most are resistant at first but after a while the letters start a regular flow, transferred by mail pouch back and forth on the school’s vessel.

Who will contact me if the school or my son needs to? Parents quickly become familiar with the all folks in the office at Penikese, but the point people tend to be Pam Brighton, Clinical Director, Linda Navarro, Aftercare Director, and Toby Lineaweaver, Executive Director. Requests and needs from the boys on the island get funneled from the island through these staff, as do special requests, needs and information from the parents to their boys.

How does the school work with families? In a number of ways, the first of which is through the above process of “telephone” therapy where school and families become acquainted and share information and strategies. During the course of placement numerous meetings take place, sometimes in Woods Hole, the referring agency or school, and on the island. Penikese pays special attention to home visites, reviewing the contract and rehearsing scenarios and strategies with the family and the students beforehand and offering support when needed should conflicts arise. During the first few home visits, parents are encouraged to avoid power struggles with their visiting sons, play the role of score keeper, and let Penikese be the bad guy and hold the students accountable. Over time and with progress, parents tend to take this role back over from the school and to the extent they are able signifies progress on all fronts.

Are there physical restraints on Penikese? There are, but not many. When restraints do occur they tend to come in bunches and with one boy who might be acting out his anxieties and testing physical boundaries. For instance, it isn’t unusual to have no restraints during a three-month (or longer) period, and then have two or three in a few days before life settles back to normal. Part of the reason for this has to do with the island location: staff can tell a student to take a walk without having to worry too much about where he will go. Also, Penikese’s approach is to deemphasize behavioral control and “Because I told you so” staff attitudes. Conflict and opposition is a bit more tolerated and worked with in the moment up to a limit that depends on the circumstances and student in question. Behaviors threatening staff and student safety are dealt with more firmly and directly.

How do I know that Penikese is right for my son? Penikese can say with reasonable assurance that boys of a certain profile (see below) are more likely to succeed, but there are no guarantees. Penikese can assure you, however, that we will be honest with you throughout; accepting a student for whom the program is not a good fit serves nobody’s best interests.

What is the “ideal” referral profile for Penikese? Although the potential success of any referral is difficult to predict, those meeting the following criteria tend to have the best success:

• Penikese seems to work best with boys between fifteen and eighteen years old, rather than early adolescents (13 - 14), whose developmental needs are somewhat different.
• Penikese seems to work best for high-energy reactive and oppositional boys rather than those immobilized by depression. For instance, sometimes it works to send a slacker out to Penikese to “shape up”, but more often it doesn’t because slacker attributes often speak to deeper issues rather than the lazy attitude as is so often assumed.
• There is some kind of “or else” or consequence or inducement to going into treatment, either from the family (We can’t have you living at home anymore unless…) or some court condition such as threat of DYS commitment.
• The boy has invested and supportive family members or other invested parties willing to be involved in the placement. And who will work in the boy’s best interest with Penikese.
• The boy exhibits some sense awareness and recognition that things aren’t working, and shows some motivation to change.

What kind of referral would be inappropriate for Penikese? Aside from lacking the above positive indicators, Penikese rules out referrals with the following characteristics: 

• A history (as opposed to an isolated event) of fire setting.
• A history of sexually reactive or perpetrating behavior.
• Boys with active psychosis or other major mental illness requiring intensive psychiatric monitoring.
• Penikese will, however, consider referrals with the above concerns on a case-by-case basis when they have received primary treatment and intervention specific to their problems, and are ready to “step down” to a less restricted setting.

What do you do to prepare students and their families for graduation and support them after? Aftercare is a critical part of the broad Penikese approach to rehabilitation, so much so that Penikese can be envisioned (and in fact is legally structured) as one school with two related components or stages, island placement and community services, including Aftercare. The Aftercare Director works with students and their families throughout the boys’ stay on the island to prepare them for successful transition from Life Skills and substance abuse assessment and relapse prevention to vocational training. The Director then builds on those relationships to maintain an influence in students’ lives long after graduation. Aftercare support can take many forms, from help with finding a job to refresher visits back to the island.

How much is Penikese’s tuition, and who pays it? Penikese’s tuition is $319.90 a day or $120,415.26 annually, which works out to about $90,000 for the average 9-month stay. Penikese’s tuition, as with all Massachusetts Chapter 766 programs, is set by the state in accordance with the services the school provides and is average for similar programs. Penikese’s tuition is paid by the agency or organization making the referral, usually the Department of Social Services, the Department of Youth Services, or in the case of special needs students, public school systems lacking the means to provide local day or residential treatment. The costs of most referrals are shared by DSS or DYS and public schools (502.5 prototype), or by public schools and the Department of Education (502.6 prototype). Although a smaller percentage of the school’s business, Penikese accepts private referrals whose tuition is paid for by the family either whole or in part by arrangement with another agency or school.

How are referrals made? Referral interest can originate from many sources, such as inquiries by parents, counselors, school personnel, attorneys, educational advocates, and probation officers. But a referral is not seriously considered for placement until a funding source is in place and the funding school or agency contacts Penikese.

Following an official referral, how does the process proceed? The funding agency or school contacts Penikese about available openings and to discuss the merits of the referral. The agency or school then mails Penikese an information package for thorough review. Penikese speaks with those involved such as parents, caseworkers, and school personnel and then, if all indicates a good match, schedules an interview with the student during which the student is shown pictures of the island, and the program is thoroughly explained, including the important fact that he must choose to attend Penikese (Penikese does not accept mandated referrals). If interested in attending Penikese, the student is asked to think about his choice at least overnight. To be accepted officially, he must call his interviewer, ask to attend Penikese, restate his goals and expectations for the program, and complete and sign a Student Agreement form, which states these goals and expectations in writing.

Penikese Island School Brochure
Penikese Island School Educational Profile
Penikese Island School 2004 Department of Education Program Review