Randolph Academy Union Free School District

Randolph Academy serves emotionally fragile youth who require a small-school setting and more support services

The Challenge

Onsite counselors had to keep cancelling scheduled therapy sessions to provide crisis counseling

The Solution

Randolph Academy implemented PresenceLearning’s online behavioral and mental health services

The Results

Students receive their regularly mandated therapy and onsite counselors are available for crisis counseling as needed

We turned to PresenceLearning’s online behavioral and mental health services to provide regular skill development sessions so our onsite counselors were available for crisis counseling when needed.

- Lori DeCarlo, Superintendent of Randolph Academy

The Story Of Randolph Academy Union Free School District

Randolph Academy serves students whose emotional and behavioral needs require a small-school setting and extra support. Many of the 200 K-12 students have IEPs that mandate related services like counseling, however, the district’s 11 counselors sometimes had to cancel regularly scheduled sessions to provide crisis counseling at a moment’s notice. Randolph Academy Superintendent Lori DeCarlo chose to implement the online delivery of live, online behavioral and mental health services by PresenceLearning’s network of teletherapy providers to ensure students had access to consistent counseling services and to give the onsite counselors the flexibility to conduct crisis counseling when needed.
Since partnering with PresenceLearning two years ago, approximately 20 students have benefited from the online approach. Last year, two students met their IEP goals and returned to their home school district, which is Randolph Academy’s ultimate goal. DeCarlo and the onsite counselors have also seen an improvement in students’ decision making and behavior. Both students and onsite counselors have embraced the online format. Because of their positive response, Randolph Academy has also started using PresenceLearning’s online speech-language therapy solution.

I previously dismissed online therapy because I didn’t think our students would engage in pre-recorded, canned sessions. It wasn’t until I realized that this was a living, breathing therapist conducting live sessions with students via videoconferencing that I had my ‘a-ha’ moment.

- Lori DeCarlo, Superintendent of Randolph Academy