Private High Schools for medicated adhd kid
Hi Parents,
I'd love to know which private high schools in the East Bay you would recommend (or not) for a child with inattentive adhd and on medication. My child will still need some support as a neuro divergent student and I don't know which schools we should look into or avoid. Also, if you have experience with Berkeley High in this context, that would be good to hear too. Thank you so much!
Feb 24, 2022
Parent Replies
Our child went to 9th and 10th grades at Berkeley High with a similar situation, with a 504 Plan. The teachers varied greatly, a few who were extremely responsive and helped with accommodations and support, some who would not respect them (one who said tutoring was not allowed outside of school!), and most somewhere in between. He floundered, couldn't keep up with homework, and then the pandemic hit, so we took him out. He's now at Berkeley Fusion, which is AWESOME for him. He's doing great, but it's an extremely small school with all 1-on-1 classes, so it's really not a typical high school experience. He's very sad about that, although he's made friends.
Our other child has started at Maybeck, and it seems really great for kids with learning challenges of some types. Also small (~30 per grade) but has typical classes that are very interactive and teachers are very focused on the whole child.
Feel free to get in touch if you'd like to speak further about either school.
Our adhd-medicated daughter had a great experience at Bishop O'Dowd High School. She was able to excel academically (honors and AP classes, hight SAT scores) and thrive socially. Outside of academics, O'Dowd offered a wide array of opportunities to participate in sports, volunteer, explore social and environmental justice issues, gain leadership skills and just generally provide access to a lot of different life experiences. Our daughter had great support from all faculty and the institution as a whole. We are especially grateful for her guidance counselor, who specialized in working with students with learning differences and worked with our daughter for all 4 years, including excellent support with college selection and application process. Unrelated but in case it's of interest: we are not catholic nor religiously affiliated but did not find that to be an issue at all.Rather we found that we all learned from and appreciated O'Dowd's approach to religion classes. Best of luck to your student!
Our 10th grader (ADHD diagnosis, medicated) is having a very positive experience at Head-Royce so far. HRS has a learning specialist who has distributed my student's learning plan to each of his teachers at the beginning of each year, detailing what my kid might need in terms of support and accommodations. The learning specialist has also made sure my student gets the right accommodations for standardized tests. There's a LD affinity group on campus so students can connect with each other. The upper school also has an advising system and a school counselor, so my student has always felt like he has someone to ask in case he has a question or concern.
Holden High School in Orinda might be a good fit. Very small (about 40 students total, grades 9 - 12) but not 1-on-1. Classes are around 5 - 12 students each. They are very responsive to learning and mental health needs of all kinds. My child went there for all 4 years and did very well.