College Bridge programs for ADHD students?

[erinvrie31]

Hi all, we are wondering if anyone has experience with college bridge programs specifically for adhd students? Our son is now finishing his senior year in high school. The consistent opinion of his teachers and counselors, with which we agree, is that he has the potential to go to college, but that his executive functioning skills and maturity are not there yet - terrible problems with attention in class, planning, sticking with boring assignments, and self-awareness. He's also pretty much addicted to video games, which has compounded all his problems. We are looking for bridge programs - not gap years, since he is not interested in that - but live-in programs which give kids extra structure and support while they begin taking college courses. One program we're looking at is College Excel in Oregon. I believe there are a couple of others in the country but haven't researched them yet. Does anyone have experience with College Excel or other similar programs? What did you think? I would love to see programs like this and more info about them, bc I think they could be tremendously helpful to a lot of young adults who want to complete college but don't quite have the executive functioning piece yet. Thank you very much for any information!

[Onthemove1971]

Erinvrie31- in the school district I work in we "can" work with kids in our transition center up until 22 years old. This center is less than 1 mile from our community college so it is great to help kids with the many, many things that they might need help with in their first few years of college. We help them set up services for accommodations, we set up classes with them. While taking the class we can help them..

I think this is exactly what you are talking about. Ask in your district how they work with kids 18-22 years old.

Another option is to look at colleges that are known for working great with children with ADHD and see how much they can help him. Community/state.

Our son is still in middle school but he has a curriculum support class to help him learn to do more with a little guidance. That means he does not get an elective, which we are good with. He is still struggling with academics becuase of behavior.

Hope this helps.

[erinvrie31 in reply to Onthemove1971]

Hi Onthemove, Thank you for the reply! I'd love to know what district you're in. Unfortunately, nothing like that is in our district (Santa Cruz, CA). Our area is pretty overstretched when it comes to ed resources, and once a kid is out, they are out. Would you mind sharing the name of your district and its transition center? I'd love to look at it at least as a model.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to erinvrie31]

Of course... Laurel Ruff transition center, San Juan Unified school district ( near sacramento). A child can not get a diploma until they are done with services, they can walk with their High school class( in san juan) but can not get a diploma until they are finished in the district. I will admit this is a transition center, not all of the student are there for that reason ( to start college, get a job) It also has an outstanding "workability" program which has a feeder program into Kaiser hospital and only a few are chosen for this - Project search, but if you are you "could" get am amazing job working for Kaiser Permente in many different areas making a lot of money.

Best of luck!

[erinvrie31 in reply to Onthemove1971]

Wow, that's fantastic, thank you for the info. Makes me want to move to Sac! Unfortuantely, nothing like that here (Santa Cruz).

[seller]

To be honest, I would not spend the money it will cost for the bridge program.....I would have him attend your local community college, which is usually very affordable. My ADHD son is almost 25 and is finally finishing college. We tried sending him away when we was 18. The college had a program for "at risk" kids, but my son didn't go to the required meetings, had trouble with roommates, didn't go to class, etc. We brought him home at Thanksgiving and paid for an entire semester, which was a total loss. Your son will be ready for college at some point, but most of the time, our ADHD boys are several years behind their peers. They just can't handle all the autonomy and when alcohol, parties, and girls are added, it's even worse. My son finally realized he was tired of minimum wage jobs and started with 2 classes. He also realized he could not do college without his meds and went back on his Vyvanse. We made him pay for the first 2 semesters of the community college to make sure was serious.