Detailed History

Historical Overview  |  Detailed History

Positive Education Program - Our History and Programatic Philosophy

Rico Pallotta began this organization with a search for values. He wanted to build a program based on a solid foundation of beliefs that would withstand the test of time and the coming and going of educational and psychological fads. Dr. Pallotta wanted a belief system based on fundamental truths. He found that when he discovered Re-EDucation (Re-ED) developed by Nicholas Hobbs, Ph.D. and his colleagues at Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee.

In April of 1970, Dr. Pallotta attended a conference in Chicago. The presenters were Robert Slagle and Charles McDonald, two of Nick Hobbs’ colleagues. Their message of how to reach troubled kids inspired Rico Pallotta. It also inspired another man, M. Lee Maxwell, who at the time was finishing his doctorate. Both men were profoundly moved and invigorated by the Re-ED principles. Independently, each man had expressed these feelings to a mutual friend, Esther Gray, who insisted that the two men meet each other.

By September of that same year, Dr. Pallotta had hired Dr. Maxwell to work with him at the Cuyahoga East Special Education Service Canter.

A year later, in the fall of 1971, Positive Education Program (PEP) was born. Its first home was in Shaker Heights in the former Moreland Elementary School. PEP started as a training and consulting organization working with teachers and principals, school psychologists and families on issues related to behavior and learning problems.

In 1975, PEP opened West Bridge, its first Day Treatment Center. Just months later, Hopewell (formerly known as Parmadale) opened its doors. The Educational Service Center (formerly known as The Cuyahoga County Board of Education) became PEP’s fiscal agent.

1975 was a very important year in PEP’s history. Changes in national education law forever altered the demand for PEP’s services. Public Law 94-142 was signed into law by President Gerald Ford. This law guaranteed a free and appropriate education for all children, regardless of disability, to be provided at public expense.

In the fall of 1974, PEP staff visited several Re-ED programs in Tennessee. One of those was the Regional Intervention Program (RIP). Dr. Pallotta was so inspired by what he saw that the planning for PEP’s Early Childhood Centers (ECC) was quickly underway and the work of the ECCs was to be replicated on the RIP model. By November of 1976, PEP had opened its first Early Childhood Center. Response to this new service was so great that by 1978 PEP opened its second Early Childhood Center on the west side of town.

By the end of 1978, PEP had opened three more Day Treatment Centers: Eastwood in 1976; Phoenix Place in 1977; and West Shore in 1978. Greenview Day Treatment Center opened its doors in 1984.

The closing of children’s psychiatric hospitals created a critical need for residential psychiatric services. PEP responded to this need by opening its first Group Home in 1983, with support from the Ohio Department of Mental Health. In 1991, PEP opened its second Group Home to serve adolescent males who have serious emotional disturbances combined with significant developmental delays. In 2007, because of funding changes, PEP is no longer operating these group homes.

By 1987, it became apparent to PEP that there was a growing number of children being identified with both SED (serious emotional disturbance) and autism or multiple handicaps. In that year, PEP opened its first classroom designed to meet the special needs of this group of children. By 1998, Harbor Center (formerly known as The Center for Special Needs) had its own facility and was serving 60 children a year. In 2005, Harbor expanded its operation adding an annex operation with four classrooms in Lakewood bringing its capacity to over 90 children and youth.

In 1989, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and the Cuyahoga County Community Mental Health Board, Connections was born. Connections, a unique intersystems community support program, was designed to meet the needs of children in multiple systems of care who are at imminent risk of removal from their home and the community.

In the late 1990’s, Cuyahoga County leaders started to place increasing importance on the value of early childhood interventions. Once again, PEP was asked to take a leadership role in starting a new community initiative. In January of 1997, Day Care Plus – a program designed to maintain young children with challenging behaviors in their existing child care settings - was established as a collaborative effort of the Cuyahoga County Community Mental Health Board, Starting Point for Child Care and Early Education and Positive Education Program.

Dr. Pallotta led Positive Education Program for 27 years with remarkable compassion and vision. In January of 1998, Dr. Pallotta, PEP’s beloved founder, died after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Frank Fecser, then a 20-year veteran of PEP, became PEP’s second executive director and now serves as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer.

Under Dr. Fecser’s leadership, PEP has continued to grow. In 1998, PEP became a Help Me Grow provider. PEP’s Help Me Grow program uses parent-staff as home visitors to provide support and services to promote the well-being of children ages 0-3. In 1999, PEP Assist, a program designed to provide training and consultative services to schools, was born.

In 2000, PEP opened its eighth day treatment center. This center – Midtown Center for Youth in Transition – is specifically designed to help adolescents transition to successful adulthood. In 2003, PEP opened its ninth day treatment center, Phoenix Point, expanding its service to dually-diagnosed youth. Responding to growing demand from Lorain County, PEP opened its ten center in 2005. This new center, Willow Creek (located in Grafton), marks PEP’s first program to operate outside of Cuyahoga County.

In 2003, Cuyahoga County was awarded a multi-million dollar federal grant to develop a more efficient and family-friendly system to provide supports to children who are seriously emotionally disturbed and their families. This system of care, named Tapestry, is built on the successful work of PEP Connections and Family-to-Family, a large Cuyahoga County foster care initiative, which was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. PEP is the first mental health agency to pilot Tapestry.

As PEP has grown in size, it has also grown in its reputation. Locally and nationally, PEP has been recognized for its excellent programming. In 1996, the U.S. Department of Education identified PEP’s Day Treatment Centers as one of six model special education programs in the country. In 2000, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice recognized PEP for being an example of a model program providing intensive interventions to troubled students. In 2003, Positive Education Program won the Woodruff Prize, a local honor bestowed upon an agency demonstrating excellence in mental health care.

Throughout these many years, as new programs have started and others have expanded, one thing has always remained constant – PEP’s commitment to the values of Re-EDucation. This asset-based, wholly-embracing and compassionate approach to working with troubled and troubling children and their families is as meaningful today as it was when PEP first opened its doors in 1971.