Red Hill Academy students are high school students with learning differences who also struggle with social, emotional, and behavioral disturbance in the mild to moderate range, a combination that makes it difficult for them to succeed academically either in public school settings or in other specialized schools that are designed to address only learning difficulties.

Students may have learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, NLD, ADHD, or Asperger's Syndrome. They may also struggle with emotional or behavioral problems such as social immaturity, low self-esteem, and difficulty with organization, completing tasks or making and maintaining friendships. Family relationships may also be negatively impacted by these difficulties in living and learning. For some students, these emotional and behavioral difficulties have been significant enough to warrant diagnoses such as Dysthymia (mild to moderate depression), Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

For students at Red Hill Academy the development of significant social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties is very often directly related to the lifelong experience of struggling with undiagnosed, unaddressed, or poorly understood issues in learning. Experiences of frustration, failure, and defeat - despite being of average to above average intelligence - have resulted in demoralization, alienation, and an overall sense of hopelessness. For many students, chronic emotional distress has contributed greatly to the emergence of behavioral difficulties that create an additional burden on the student and his or her family.

Note: Red Hill Academy does not accept students with a history of substance use beyond experimentation or a significant history of violence or running away. Neither does Red Hill Academy serve clients with diagnoses such as Conduct Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (other than Asperger's Syndrome), Major Depression, Bi-Polar Disorder, Schizophrenia or other Psychotic Disorders.