Aspen Education Group
Carlsbad, CA

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Aspen Education Group
To Restructure Programs

Aspen Education Group is the leading provider of behavioral health and education services for adolescents and has been for over two decades. As part of our commitment to providing clinical excellence for the students and families we serve, we will be transitioning to a more focused national network of services. This smaller network will allow us to apply our resources where there are the greatest needs and assure the best possible service for our students and families.

This transition reflects the reduced demand for therapeutic schools and programs in today's economy, and comes after serious deliberation including substantial financial investment over the past two years in an effort to avoid program consolidations. These decisions are accompanied by extensive planning to ensure that the significant majority of our current students will be able to complete their clinical treatment programs and/or graduate - with comprehensive transition plans developed for the students who may require them - as well as extensive efforts to retain and assist affected employees.

As part of this operational restructuring, Aspen has announced plans to discontinue operations at five locations and consolidate services for three other facilities. The programs to be closed include Bromley Brook School (Manchester Center, VT), New Leaf Academy of Oregon, NorthStar Center (Bend, OR), Aspen Ranch (Loa, UT) and SunHawk Adolescent Recovery Center (St. George, UT). Aspen Achievement Academy (Loa, UT) will consolidate with Aspen's Outback Therapeutic Expeditions in Lehi, Utah; Youth Care (Draper, UT) will be moving onto Aspen's Island View campus in Syracuse, UT, maintaining its established brand name; and Passages to Recovery (Loa, UT) will be relocating to Shoshone, ID, to add a young adult substance abuse treatment component to Aspen's already existing SUWS Adolescent & Youth program.

We are working closely with parents, students, referring professionals and staff to minimize the impact of these changes to the greatest extent possible. The safety and wellbeing of our students are our highest priorities. Careful planning and stay incentives for critical academic and therapeutic staff have been created to ensure the continuity of high-quality services at each program during this reorganization process. The majority of students will continue uninterrupted in their current program locations and graduate as planned. Our intent is that all students enrolled in an outdoor program will complete their program in its entirety. Aspen's robust network of services and programs will offer choices for most of the few remaining students to transition to other strong schools or programs appropriate to their needs. We have created initial transition plans for these students, and are collaborating with families and referring professionals for the smoothest possible transition. In addition, we are paying the student relocation costs for those who transfer to another program, regardless of whether it is within the Aspen network.

Aspen hopes to retain many members of our excellent staff currently working at affected locations, and is offering numerous employees the opportunity to transfer to one of our other facilities. Any employee, full or part time, who we are not able to accommodate within our network, will receive a severance package. Employees will be offered outplacement resources and access to our Employee Assistance Program. We are sincerely appreciative of our employees' many years of dedicated professionalism and service and regret having to make these difficult business decisions. These talented men and women have been instrumental in reuniting families and improving the lives of thousands of students, and have earned immense respect from these families, students, referring professionals and colleagues.

Aspen Education Group remains confident in our collective purpose, our mission, values, and our future. We look forward to continuing to provide adolescents and young adults with the highest quality of care within our ongoing national network of programs.

Aspen Education Group is the nation's leading provider of therapeutic education programs for struggling or underachieving young people. Aspen's services range from short-term intervention programs to residential treatment, and include a variety of therapeutic settings such as boarding schools, outdoor behavioral health programs and special needs summer camps, allowing professionals and families the opportunity to choose the best setting to meet a student's unique academic and emotional needs. Aspen is a division of CRC Health Group, the nation's largest chemical dependency and related behavioral health organization. For over two decades, CRC Health has been achieving successful outcomes for individuals and families.

Oh how sad to find out that Aspen Ranch in Loa, Utah has closed!

Our daughter graduated from there in May, 2005. We thought we'd lost our daughter to meth and other drugs, but Aspen helped us help her. Today she works as a volunteer in an orphanage near Johannesburg, South Africa! We will FOREVER be indebted to the love, counsel, life skills, and accountability our daughter learned at Aspen!

Liz Stoeckel
lizmstoeckel@gmail.com

This was sobering news, for the wilderness therapy industry in particular. Aspen Achievement Academy (AAA) was a patriarch and the sire or inspiration of many existing programs that follow the trek model. I was a Field Staff for the Wilderness Academy before CHE bought it and renamed it AAA. I've been in the industry ever since because of the passion for treating youth in the wilderness that was born on Boulder Mountain. Many current program owners and administrators in today's healthcare industry can say the same of Aspen. I have a great deal of love and respect for the individuals in the Loa, UT programs and hope the best for them, their families and for the community. Aspen was by far the largest employer in the valley and this could be devastating to the local economy. My heart goes out to them at a time when the national economy will provide them no comfort.

Scott Schill - RedCliff Ascent
scotts@redcliffascent.com

Bromley Brooke is one of the best schools they have. The girls are not major drug addicts or have police records records. It was very hard for me to find a school that was single sex, had strict rules and had a good academic record.

There are few if any other single sex school like this and I think it was not marketed properly to families who need and could afford this type of education.

You have some really amazing talent there. Beth Bove is truly one of a kind. She won't be looking for a job too long.