Author Topic: Rubin Educational Resources  (Read 3191 times)

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Offline Oz girl

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Rubin Educational Resources
« on: October 02, 2006, 05:41:37 AM »
Does anyone know anything about this group? Has there been any media on them?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
n case you\'re worried about what\'s going to become of the younger generation, it\'s going to grow up and start worrying about the younger generation.-Roger Allen

Offline Deborah

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Rubin Educational Resources
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2006, 01:47:56 PM »
Family Turns to Wilderness Camp to Help Troubled Son
Feb 27, 2006 04:20 PM CST
Rubin Education Resources
By Leslie Olsen
24-Hour News 8

This year, the parents of an estimated 15,000 teenagers nationwide will make the difficult decision to send their troubled children away.

A local family shared its painful story with 24-Hour News 8. The Larimores want others to know that sending kids to so-called "brat camps"  in the desert really can help.

Austin Larimore, 17, attends Adademy Plus of Indiana, an alternative school in Carmel. This family hopes it's Austin's final stop on a difficult journey that began when he was fourteen.

"I learned anger from my father and it became pretty obvious I was teaching Austin anger," said Fred Larimore, Austin's father.

Austin suffers from ADHD. As he approached high school, his parents feared for his safety and mental health.  They say no amount of counseling or medication helped. "Sending Austin away, probably the hardest thing I've ever done," said Larimore.

The Larimores sent their youngest son to a therapy wilderness camp in Utah for eight weeks, two different times. He was left in the desert with little more than a sleeping bag and a few other troubled teens and counselors for company.

"It's really hard. You lose everything you've had," said Austin.

The kids have no tents.  If they act out, they are punished with cold food and long hikes.  

"There have been deaths at wilderness programs that are abusive.  Those would be the boot camp model. The wilderness programs I work with have a therapeutic model and are licensed and staffed by clinicians," said Kim Rubin, Rubin Educational Resources.

[If she told the reporter that deaths only happened in boot camp model wilderness programs she is either intentionally misleading the public, or ill informed about the industry she promotes.]

Rubins is a former special education teacher and psychology diagnostician. She has a business in New Mexico were she matches troubled kids with therapy programs nationwide. Many programs have the wilderness component followed by a stay of up to two years in a boarding school.

"It's very hard to send your child away, of course. You worry about them and miss them, but to some extent it's a relief. That's hard to say as a mother, but it's true," said Debra Normann-Larimore.

This family is far from healed, but the Larimores are talking publicly for the first time to give other families some hope. "It taught us all a lot," said Fred Larimore.

"I'm not going to say its perfect.  It's really not. It's always going to be a work in progress, but when there's problems at home, we can work it out a lot better," said Austin.

This kind of therapy can put families deep in debt. The average cost is between $3,000 and $9,000, according to several different websites. Some insurance policies will cover part of the therapy.

[Part of the therapy? Like any sessions with a licensed professional counselor? Which would be a small portion of the so-called "therapy", if the "counselor" was licensed.]
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4559240
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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Hidden Lake Academy, after operating 12 years unlicensed will now be monitored by the state. Access information on the Federal Class Action lawsuit against HLA here: http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=17700

Offline Deborah

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Rubin Educational Resources
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2006, 02:34:37 PM »
Monday, July 4, 2005
Finding a fit
Educational Resources firm brings together independent consultants in one-stop-shop
Celene Adams
NMBW Staff
Excerpts:
A few years ago, Certified Educational Planner Kim Rubin flew out of state to visit a 17-year-old girl whose parents were so desperate to control her unruly behavior that they locked her in at night, in a room with bars on the windows.

Rubin, president of Santa Fe's Rubin Educational Resources, recommended placing the girl in a therapeutic wilderness program followed by a private boarding school.

"She was the star of both programs," the former college counselor, school psychologist and social worker says.

Rubin founded her firm in the early 90s to provide a "one-stop-shop" of services for families whose children have behavioral problems and/or learning disabilities, the latter of which affect about 4.6 million people in the U.S., according to a 1997 National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.

The firm offers tutoring, psychological and educational evaluations, learning disabilities testing, AD/HD consulting, therapeutic placements and college counseling, among many other services.

Such a range of services under one roof is unparalleled, not only in New Mexico but nationally, because most educational consultants work independently, Rubin says.

It wasn't too long ago that Rubin herself was independent. For years, she worked out of the guest house behind her home, along with an alliance of 18 other independents. But last fall, she says, they were all "tripping over each other." So she bought a 1,650-square-foot office just off Old Santa Fe Trail, from which 12 consultants, including tutors, therapists, child development researchers, clinical psychologists and speech and language diagnosticians, among other specialists, all work.

All the consultants have at least a master's degree and some have two, Rubin says. There also are three consultants with doctorates and, although the firm does not offer therapeutic services, four licensed therapists.

"So we're unique [in that] everyone was very experienced when they joined the firm," Rubin says, adding that most of the consultants are former colleagues who contacted her after she started her company.

"[Most of us] also belong to a national group called the Independent Educational Consultants Association [IECA]," she says.

The Association is not a regulatory body. "There's no licensing or regulation of education anywhere in the U.S.," says Mark Sklarow, IECA's executive director. However, he lists stringent and copious membership criteria.
[Not true. In Texas Ed Cons must be licensed to place children out-of-state. You'll play hell getting the state to enforce the law, but it's on the books.]

Although the majority of Rubin Educational Resources's clients are teenagers, the firm also works with children and adults, and consults with families and educators in 39 states. "I would say over half of our clients are national," and a few come from overseas, says Rubin.

Her consultants work with a range of issues -- learning disabilities such as dyslexia, psychological problems such as obsessive compulsive disorder, behavioral problems such as peer conflicts, and emotional disorders such as depression or anxiety.

Having such variety of specialists in one place is of value to clients, says Sklarow, especially in cases where one child has several types of disorders or where one family has children with different disorders. However, he notes that one should always hire an educational consultant based on the consultant who will be working with the child, not based solely on the firm's overall expertise or reputation.

Where desirable, the firm also places young adults in therapeutic wilderness schools, traditional boarding schools, schools for the performing arts, residential treatment centers, or whatever type of facility is appropriate for the particular client. "We're the only educational resources company in New Mexico that does placements," Rubin says. There are, however, four other independent educational consultants in the state who are qualified to do placements, says Sklarow.

Rubin's consultants follow up on their clients, paying at least one visit to each teen placed in a school. And, recently, the firm added transition services to its specialties -- coaches who work with families after children return home, to help facilitate communication within the family and reinforce newly acquired positive behaviors and social skills.

"We're a consulting business that's evolved into a continuum of care," Rubin says.

Yet while Rubin and her team function first and foremost as care providers, as the firm's founder and president, Rubin also has had to learn the nuts and bolts of running a business."Starting out ... I wasn't very profitable at all because I had a lot of overhead. I had to go to the school of hard knocks [in] how much it really costs to run a business. At first, I started out with just furnishing the office. I was under-capitalized to start and then I did take out a $50,000 loan. Business has tripled over the past three years as the need has increased. I've been building it steadily and really the growth has come as these services have stabilized, as we've gotten to be better known," Rubin says, attributing the growth to both the increasing sophistication of her Web site and to having brought on more consultants who generate more word-of-mouth referrals.

Fees for services range from $65 an hour for tutoring and ACT/SAT preparation, to $1,595 for college counseling, to $5,000 for a comprehensive school placement, which includes one school visit and monitoring student progress for one year.

"For out-of-state clients, depending on the state, [the services] can be funded but it's very hard to get New Mexico to fund kids," Rubin says, adding that the firm does not accept insurance because it's difficult to collect coverage. "I wish I could but I can't afford to wait for insurance companies to pay and then have a salaried person ... in charge of insurance claims."

While it is not inexpensive to have one's child tested and/or placed, Rubin says that it is more expensive in the long run, both financially and in terms of time, to visit numerous individual experts and schools while trying to discover solutions for learning and behavioral problems than it is to pay a flat fee for the type of comprehensive services her firm offers.

Further, she says it can do more harm than good to attempt to go it alone. "To me, the most dangerous thing a parent can do is go on the Internet and try to find a school or program by themselves for their at-risk teen because on the Internet all programs look great. And ... they are truly not all great."

Rubin Educational Resources guarantees that its clients will benefit from its placements, Rubin says. Although the firm does not conduct statistical studies to track clients' progress, she says receiving regular reports from therapeutic schools during the placement, visiting the teens and staying in touch with their families afterward confirm the placement is effective. "If something happened and the placement didn't work out, we'd re-place at no additional cost.

"But, that doesn't happen," she says.

[email protected] | 348-8321
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
gt;>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Hidden Lake Academy, after operating 12 years unlicensed will now be monitored by the state. Access information on the Federal Class Action lawsuit against HLA here: http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=17700

Offline Deborah

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Rubin Educational Resources
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2006, 02:59:30 PM »
Oh, should mention, employed the infamous Rudy Bentz, CEDU ->HLA->ASR, who referred to program kids as "Emotional Terrorists".
http://www.rubinedu.com/team/bentz.html

Who last I heard was directing a Waldorf School in Sante Fe. Search this site or google for his name.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
gt;>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Hidden Lake Academy, after operating 12 years unlicensed will now be monitored by the state. Access information on the Federal Class Action lawsuit against HLA here: http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=17700