WHAT IS CEDARHURST SCHOOL?
Cedarhurst School is a private therapeutic junior and senior high school,
serving grades 6-12, operated by Yale University. It offers a structured and
supportive learning environment for students identified as ED and OHI.
Goals for Cedarhurst Students
• Academic achievement
• Social and emotional development
• Staying in school
• Returning to the home school district when appropriate
• Graduation from high school
• College or productive employment
Characteristics of the program
Cedarhurst offers both mainstream programs (students move from
classroom to classroom) and self-contained programs for students requiring
more intensive, ongoing academic instruction and behavioral interventions.
Academic course schedules are tailored to meet the credit requirements of
the referring school. Students learn in an atmosphere that fosters attention,
concentration, and the organizational skills necessary for academic success.
Providing small classes with a maximum of eight students allows students
who have failed to adapt to other settings to thrive academically,
emotionally and socially in our nurturing environment. A clinician is
assigned to each student providing therapeutic interventions and individual
meetings as needed. The staff consists of a director, certified special
education teachers, a nurse, licensed clinical social workers and other
trained support staff. The referral process includes an interview and
shadow visit(s) to determine appropriateness for either program.
The role of the parent
Parents are encouraged to attend PPT's, Open Houses/Teacher
conferences/Parent Support Groups. They should maintain close phone
contact with the social worker, advisor and school nurse to assist in
problem-solving and implementation of plans of action. Parents are
important members of the team, working in the best interests of
the student.
The Parents' Group is a very important part of the therapeutic program at
Cedarhurst School and we encourage all of our parents to make every effort
to attend.
Speakers have been invited to discuss psychopharmacology, substance
abuse, psychiatric diagnosis and treatment; communications, behavioral
management and transition planning are scheduled throughout this
coming year.
OUR HISTORY
1960 - School was opened on Cedar Street under the supervision of The
Yale Psychiatric Institute, Department of Psychiatry, tutoring students who
were 18 years and older who had not graduated from high school.
1970's - The Y.P.I. moved to the Albertus Magnus campus.
Patients/students were younger and required a more formalized educational
program to meet their graduation requirements.
1982 - Cedarhurst School moved to the current facility in the Jackson
Mansion. The program expanded to include ED day students of
junior/senior high school age as well as providing education to patients
hospitalized at the Y.P.I.
OUR BUILDING
For more than half a century, our building was the home of John Day
Jackson, his wife Rose Herrick Jackson, and their eight children.
A native of Hartford, a graduate of the Yale Class of 1890 and Chairman of
the Yale Daily News, Mr. Jackson was a newspaper reporter and
correspondent before he became the owner, editor and publisher of the
New Haven Register in 1895. He married Rose Herrick of Dundee, Illinois,
in 1909. As their family grew, they planned and built this house, occupying
it in 1919 and raised their five sons and three daughters in the house.
Designed in Tudor style by architect Charles O. Whitmore of Hartford, the
house was built on land purchased from the estate of Eli Whitney. It first
stood almost alone in a wooded countryside near the end of Prospect
Street, which was then a dirt road. The family's wide interests and Mr.
Jackson's many public commitments, however, kept it a center of activity.
When the children went off to school and college and marriage, this home
remained a favorite gathering place for them and for 28 Jackson
grandchildren on holidays and special family occasions.
While Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were both music lovers, Mrs. Jackson was a
particular patron of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Over several
decades, the spacious living room at the south end of the first floor, with
its two grand pianos, was the scene of intimate concerts by musicians of
worldwide reputation. Pianists Van Cliburn, John Browning and Gary
Graffman, cellist Aldo Parisot, and soprano Povla Frijsch were among the
distinguished musicians who performed under this roof.
John Day Jackson died in 1961, at age 93. Rose Herrick Jackson died
in 1977 at the age of 88.
In 1981, Yale University obtained the house through the Jackson's son,
Lionel S. Jackson, as a home for the Cedarhurst School.
