FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Monthly tuition covers food and boarding, clothing, all wilderness activities and outings, transportation to and from medical/dental/psychiatric care, daily supervision and mentoring from Petty Creek Ranch Staff, academic tutoring, treatment planning, vocational/technical training, etc. 

Health insurance and medical/dental/psychiatric needs, travel expenses for home visits from Petty Creek Ranch staff, and enrollment into Our Lady of the Rosary School. Individual and Group Counseling services will also be billed to your insurance in an attempt to provide lower tuition rates and cost-effective treatment. 

Petty Creek Ranch does not currently accept insurance payments but is working on becoming “accredited” through both the Commission on Accrediting Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Counsel (OBHC). This will enable Petty Creek Ranch to accept insurance payments in the future. Petty Creek Ranch does have access to financial assistance and scholarship funds; call us for more information. 

We require an initial phone interview with parents to determine if Petty Creek Ranch is an appropriate fit for your son. We will then require you to complete an admission application and to submit both the admission fee and the first month’s tuition. 

Many at-risk teens need to be removed from their environment and immersed in a radically different culture in order to facilitate change and self-discovery. We also believe that there are intrinsic therapeutic benefits to placing a struggling teen in a wilderness environment, as many studies over the past few decades have indicated.

Petty Creek Ranch helps teens struggling with oppositional/defiant behavior, anger issues, theft/dishonesty, depression, academic underachievement, poor social skills, attention-deficit disorder, sibling rivalry and bullying, divorce reaction, and attachment issues.

We process applications year-round and understand that most parents have an immediate need for placement; the application process generally takes between 1 day and 1 week, depending on the situation.

Program length depends on the individual needs of each child and on their progress towards completing goals and objectives on their service plan. We generally recommend a minimum length of stay of 90 days.

Petty Creek Ranch conducts extensive FBI background checks to screen all employees and provides an orientation training process for direct care staff that takes up to 6 weeks to complete. Staff will receive certificates that meet or exceed industry standards for suicide prevention and intervention, crisis de-escalation, and wilderness first aid. 

Not all the boys attend school as academic enrollment depends largely on the length of stay at Petty Creek Ranch; we recommend Our Lady of the Rosary School but can also accommodate other curricula if needed.  Please see our “Academics” section. 

Although Petty Creek Ranch implements all industry safety standards during the delivery of program services, there are many risks that are inherent in our program activities (rafting, skiing, horseback riding, etc.)

You will initially speak to your son on the phone for 30 minutes a week.  During the course of treatment, we may recommend more frequent phone calls which will be discussed while your son is at Petty Creek Ranch. Yes, although we ask that correspondence between family and friends be limited to the later stages of treatment.

We believe that family visits are an important part of the treatment process and will schedule visits at the appropriate time.  Your son’s ability to go home for visits (holidays, etc.) also depends on his progress.

Yes, we encourage you to visit Petty Creek Ranch if you feel uneasy about enrolling your son in our program without meeting our team and touring our facility.

Missoula International Airport (approximately 25 miles from Petty Creek Ranch). 

As a Catholic youth program, Petty Creek Ranch does require our clients to attend Mass on Sunday, refrain from eating meat on Fridays during the Lenten season, and to participate in group prayer and spiritual discussions.  Catholic clients will be able to go to the Sacrament of Confession weekly and reasonable accommodations can be arranged for non-Catholic clients to practice their personal life of faith, although some limitations may apply due to the remote location of our program.  Please call us today to learn more about our Christian orientation and faith-based program model.