Top Virginia Specialized Education Association Gives Grafton Highest Honors

August 25, 2009

News: For Immediate Release
Top Virginia Specialized Education Association Gives Grafton Highest Honors

August 25, 2009 — Grafton Schools Inc. announced today that it was granted the Virginia Association of Independent Specialized Education Facilities (VAISEF)’s highest honor – a five year accreditation across all four of its school sites. Founded in 1973, VAISEF is a membership and oversight organization. Although accreditation from the organization is optional, almost all private educational organizations in the state of Virginia seek it. .

With a revised accreditation process in effect since January 2009, VAISEF now adheres to a more challenging point scale and has increased the level of data required. Despite this more rigorous methodology, all Grafton schools received scores of higher than 95%.

VAISEF rated Grafton based on a total of seventeen pre-determined school standards. It also used five modules specific to the Grafton’s services – special education, pre-vocational education, clinical counseling, speech and language, and physical/occupational therapy – to complete its evaluation. Out of the five modules, the organization received perfect scores in four. With zero licensure citations in the past two years and for exemplifying the school’s excellent commitment to student services, Grafton’s Richmond, VA facility received an outstanding score of 98.7%.

“The VAISEF accreditation goes beyond the regulatory standards,” said Amy Smith, Director of Quality Improvement & Human Rights. “The review is conducted by people who live our business and know it inside and out. For them to commend us is very meaningful. ”

In support of its commitment to continual improvement, Grafton is looking toward to the future to determine what additional progress can be made. Each campus is looking into what they can do to further enhance services for students, parents, partner agencies and employees.

For fifty years, Grafton has been providing 24 hour support to individuals with co-occurring intellectual, developmental and psychiatric disabilities. As a nationally recognized leader in behavioral healthcare, Grafton employs more than 700 employees and supports more than 400 clients per year. Its psychiatric residential treatment center in Berryville supports children and adolescents with mild to moderate developmental and psychiatric disabilities. Operations are also located in Winchester and Richmond where community-based group homes support children and adults with Autism or other pervasive intellectual disabilities and may also have a concurrent psychiatric condition.