If you are perspective, parent thinking about sending your child to Franklin Perkins school DO NOT!! It is not a safe environment and the staff do not have adequate training to deal with the population that they have. On Tuesday November 20th 2025, my 9 year old son and I went to go tour Franklin Perkins for an out of district placement during our visit there my son was physically assaulted by another student. The assault occurred as we were being shown down the hallway by our tour guide Jennifer McGrail. There had been absolutely no prior interaction between my son and the student. My son had walked down the hallway as directed by the tour guide Jennifer McGrail, and as he walked past to go to the next stop on our tour, the student punched my son very hard in the face after this happened, I immediately took my son and removed him from the building, as it was very clear that the staff at Franklin Perkins do not receive the proper training to deal with the emotional dysregulation of the kids in their care. Jennifer McGrail Disclose to us that the student who assaulted my son had been at Franklin Perkins for six months that is certainly adequate time to understand a student's needs and have a comprehensive safety plan in place to keep the student as well as others safe. Furthermore, at the time of this incident, the student who assaulted my son had a one on one aid with him in the hallway and that aid failed to react and prevent the situation from occurring .An apology was never issued to my son in person. Upon leaving the school, we went straight to seek medical attention. Later that night, the vice principal Dawn Bentley called us. It was very clear in the phone call that she does not have adequate training or experience to talk to parents or deal with situations like this as much of a phone call was sitting in silence with her, not knowing how to deal with the situation and very much felt like she was reaching out to us to make herself feel better/gauge our response. I feel very bad for the students at this program who are not being given the support that they need/deserve. Jennifer McGrail and Dawn Bentley are an absolute embarrassment to the educational field save yourselves and your children, the trauma, and skip this joke of an establishment read more

Horrible place with abuse and will neglect your children. My son almost committed suicide because of the treatment he received and the staff and administratiom did not try to prevent it at all and ignored my son. He jumped off the roof and broke both his legs and a few ribs and the staff just stood there and watched. It was a student who ended up calling emergency services and the staff stonewalled emergency services saying they didnt see anything. Nothing good was done for my son in this place. Don't believe anyone who tells you this is a safe place for your children. They are covering up their abuse because of the money they receive from the state and private donations. If you value your child's life and safety DO NOT SEND THEM TO DR. FRANLIN PERKINS SCHOOL! Lives are ruined there. read more

If I could give 0 stars I would but I can't. I was here from December 2023-May 2024 as a residential student. In this timeframe, my mental health got even worse. At first, things were not bad and I thought that it might be helpful. Things slowly got worse and then, snowballed. My clinician, was not helpful at all. She would not let me process my thoughts related to Anorexia. Also, they said that they WOULD support and paid for my food needs. I ended up having to PAY FOR MY ENSURES even though they said they would. They catered to another student in my house with specific food needs, but did not for me. I ran out into the street multiple times in attempt to kill myself. There were only a few staff who actually cared about me. In addition, one student who lived in the same house as me, told me to go kill myself multiple times and I tried. I discharged with EXTREME TRUAMA. Regardless of what people tell you, THIS IS NOT A SAFE PLACE. If you are a student/parent thinking about therapeutic residential schools, PLEASE DO NOT GO HERE. I do not want your mental health getting worse. read more

A school for anyone whose child has struggled within the structure of traditional public school. Children have their own clinicians who oversees their overall well-being, as well as regular teachers, TA's and specialists. The difference? Students are treated as individuals, which is made possible by the low student/teacher ratio. The school offers a top-notch education as well with individualized curriculum based on the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. read more

This school is horrible I have been attending this horrific school for a few mouths now and it had increased my anxiety and panic disorder. This school doesn't help with social skills and is rude and unkind to children. There are children that have physical out burst and verbal out burst and when so they get sent to solution and if they refuse the teachers will drag them to solution and the children often will be left with marks. For those of you who don't know what solution is its a room of kids who have misbehaved basically over filled and piled up with kids and some of the kids get put in there for simply speaking out loud or accidentally interrupting class. I strongly recommend not sending your child here. read more

this is a bad school. i was a student here after my HS determined they would be able to help me more. the teachers and administration bullied me into staying longer than i should have, even as they saw my mental health and moods deteriorating. i suspect this is because they were getting paid for my stay. besides this, teachers at dr. franklin perkins school act more like aloof babysitters, and dont do much teaching or character building. there was little to no learning happening and very little work. teachers even asked me to create my own curriculum, offloading this burden onto me. if you are a student, expect for teachers to look down on you and treat you as a small child. teachers and administration pick favorites and bend the rules for their chosen ones, and forget the rest. i dont recomend this school for any student hoping to have an enjoyable and educational stay. read more

Perkins has saved my child life, after years of bullying and no services for my son with mild autism and ADHD we had the awesome blessing of getting him into the therapeutic day program..and his life change...through one on one teaching and behavioral counseling...the caring staff have made it possible for him to bloom...because of Perkins he will go on to college and live a good life...through his transitional plan he will learn independence towards a life on his own...I cannot tell you the depth of our appreciation...we would be some place else entirely without this godsend of a school...as far as the last review goes...any persons that tarnished the school and have been removed were not a systemic part of any abuse problem...it was individual and promptly handled...please don't let anyone deter you from checking it out if your child is floundering in public ed. with learning differences read more