I hate this school with all my heart I really don't want to ever go back to this school again the teachers were no help whatsoever and the kids bullied me to the point I was scared to go to gym and music etc it was got so bad where I woulcer be in the classroom by myself I had no friends there i felt so alone my home was my escape from that school I never want to go that ever again im so happy im away from thoes kids and in a s space when I tell you this school is the worse school I ever been to in my entire life i had nobody to talk to about me getting bullied they wouldnt do anything it got to a point where I would cry in the bathroom and begging my mom to come get me I don't wish this on my worst enemy nobody I mean NOBODY should be scared to go to school like I did nobody should be getting bullied like I did . Don't send your child here. read more

There isn't too much I have to say about this school than other reviews here, but I will tell you this: I feel like student reviews are more important than parent reviews, because students are the ones who have actually been there. We aren't rating this school one-star because we hate school in general- it's because this school is actually very, very flawed. The point system, in my opinion, is ridiculous- this school degrades you so badly that you can't even walk in the hallways by yourself unless you're in eighth grade AND level 2. The level system goes like this Level 1- Average of under 80 points a day Level 2- Average of 80-94 points a day Level 3- Average of 95 points a day Thing is, you can go from level 3 to level 1 in a week, and I think that is very unfair. And, to be honest, the level system feels like a hierarchy. Although you can say that level 1s are treated wrong because, well, they are level 1 for a reason- you'd be wrong. The point system is irrelevant to a lot of students anyways. And I'm not biased- this is coming from a level 3. Also, there are a lot of bullies here. Not in my class, but there are in other classes. There are a lot of bigoted kids here and the staff doesn't seem to do anything about it. If you try to defend yourself, you're going down a level, and this is a really terrible thing, because there are many depressed kids here. I've never been to ALR or bir, so I don't have much to say about that, but I can say that there have been multiple occasions in which staff has used physical restraint. This may be legal but it still isn't a good thing, and staff goes too far. They broke the wrist of somebody in my class and according to a review, another student from two years ago. Please don't have your kid go to this school! It does not help with mental health- it makes it worse. I've been here for barely three months, and I have way too many negative things to say about this place. Another thing is that externalized behavioral issues are treated differently than those with internalized anxiety, and some guidance counselors don't care about one students problem as it isn't as bad as another students. read more

Terrible place, the principal has no consideration of kids nor parents tried talking to him didn't wanna talk just pushed me to teachers that didn't know what to say sad, looks like nice school promise it's not it, for little bit slower kids yet no lead way find another school read more

Jefferson Academic Center - Middle Schools & High Schools Near Me - Port Jefferson, New York

sorry about the last review, I was just spewing word vomit, no one will read that. anyway, to sum it up, the school claims to be therapeutic but proves to be just the opposite. Trust me. I was a student there, it's not good at all. the staff are not trained to restrain properly, even though they claim to, and they do it for no valid reason, too, and it really does hurt, they are not trained at all. students get threatened with violence and are harassed verbally constantly as well, some (including me) have experienced physical aggression too. there are no consequences for the students who do this to others, and I have tried to inform the staff and admin many times, and my concerns were completely ignored and overlooked. overall that place is horrible, to say the least, and I don't wish this kind of experience on anyone. i strongly recommend you avoid attending this school or having your child attend this school. it was a very awful experience for me and many others as well, and for the love of God, do not have your child attend this school. Trust me, it does so much more harm than good. This is not a place that will support your child's needs in any way possible. I might have been a student there, but please trust me, I don't want anyone else to have to experience this if it can be prevented. read more

Very bad quality school. The school's employees allow certain students to target and threaten other students with little to no consequences. It is, in my experience, a very non-therapeutic and stressful school, though it claims to be a therapeutic environment that supports the needs of students who need more help that their school district cannot offer. In my opinion, the school has very little to no experience on how to deal with special education students and issues that may arise. Students who break a (in my opinion) trivial rule like dress code or checking their phones a few times throughout the school day, (or, of course, if they did something else that may range from a small situation to a very serious situation) they are forced to spend at minimum a half day and at maximum a full day in an in school suspension room that the school calls ALR, which I believe stands for "Alternative Learning Room". The students in ALR are not permitted to stand up from their desks or to speak to anyone, teachers or students, unless urgent or related to work. In rare cases, students can "work their way" out of ALR by doing school work that is sent to them from the classes they are missing. Usually, however, students end up forcing themselves to complete the class work sent to them, only to get turned down by administration and have to spend a full day in ALR regardless. Going to the bathroom in ALR is a difficult task, mostly because the teachers on duty for ALR feel that the "time is not convenient", and most of the time you wait till the end of the day to use the bathroom. Keep in mind that a majority of students in ALR are scheduled for a full day, which means, unless they are picked up from school, they are staying in ALR for about 7 hours. A lot of the time, full day ALR is used in place of actual suspension, and, in my experience, ALR is a lot worse and more stressful and nerve racking than suspension. Perhaps they are trying to give worse punishments than suspension, and I may just be a brat, but having children sit in silence and hold their pee for hours and have nothing to do to possibly occupy themselves, (besides class work that was sent from the classes they are missing, which are usually just Scholastic articles related to the subject they are teaching with a series of short responses and multiple choice questions that go along with it. I personally cannot occupy myself with that for 7 hours or even 3 or 4, which is a half day in ALR. Besides ALR, the therapists/counselors (including Sagamore, which is a program that certain students are in that deal with medication as well as therapy, have as a "therapy" system in this school. Students who are not in Sagamore just go to the regular counselors who are separate from their providers for their medication. I have experience with both Sagamore and the regular school counselors.) The therapists in both programs are not very helpful or professional in my experience and they are quite rude at times and have extremely low tolerance for any sort of misbehavior, which is surprising to me considering that the school claims to know how to deal with oppositional defiant or disruptive behavior. Since the school is a BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) school for kids who need extra help, it is very difficult to qualify to leave BOCES and go back to their regular district school. BOCES seems to, in my experience, find ways to convince your district that you still need additional support as to keep you in BOCES longer. Not to mention much of the students are very nasty and aggressive and have threatened me and other students. (and even physically assaulted other students) This behavior is obviously expected considering that the school is for special education students. However, such actions deserve consequences. Students who participate in bullying or harassment or threats usually have little to no consequences rather than dropping a day in the irrelevant level and point system. I find it quite odd that most students in ALR have broken a somewhat trivial school rule or reacted poorly to students who are bullying them, while there are students doing unacceptable things and rarely get any real consequences for it. The education that we are receiving is also (even though BOCES will never admit to this) an "easier" version of what we would be learning in district schools. Students in BOCES without learning disabilities or issues aren't able to receive an education that is suitable for them. Classes are very disorganized. You stay with your class all day, transitioning to the same classes together each time. Some classes are extremely small, sometimes consisting of less than three people, while another class could have over ten students, with students moving to different classes quite frequently for a variation of reasons. Lunch is in your home room classroom, again, you spend lunch with the same classmates you spend all day with. There's more, but I have no space read more