Joseph academy

Michael Schack-Executive Director


Excellence in Special Education

Our Schools

Joseph Academy in Des Plaines is the largest of our locations.  It occupies the former Nipper Orphanage Act School located just north of Maryville Academy’s main campus.  This is an environment that is both nurturing and challenging.  Here, students’ self-esteem and productivity are increased as a result of the dedication of a highly organized therapeutic staff.  Each student progresses through a five level motivational system—earning daily points for fulfilling academic, social, emotional, vocational, and athletic expectations.  Students that attend this year-round facility are in grades 6-12 and come from 30 different school communities in Cook and Lake County.

Joseph Academy in Melrose Park opened in the fall of 2005.  This program, like our others, is ISBE approved and offers small group and individual instruction to students in grades K-8.  These students have been identified as having severe emotional and learning disorders.  A Social worker, psychologist, consulting psychiatrist and nurse all work with a certified team of professionals to shape this environment through patience and persistence.  This former Catholic school building provides the environment where children and their parents can receive feedback and learn to be accountable while developing healthy relationships with a nurturing faculty.

At Maryville Scott Nolan in Des Plaines, Joseph Academy offers an Orphanage Act School under the direction of the Maine Township Special Education Program.  Here, a carefully contained therapeutic setting has been established to serve up to 30 students who have been placed in a residential treatment center.  The daily therapeutic education experience consists of six or more semester credits, but also includes individual and group therapy, as well as computerized education.  This therapeutic milieu is carefully designed to motivate and inspire students who have lived through many difficult life experiences.  The strategy is to utilize a “school” atmosphere in an effort to change their broken and angry hearts into hearts filled with joy and confidence.