First major school success for Neurofeedback

The Yonkers Project was set up in a Yonkers, New York public school in 1995 and ended in 2001.  The project was created through the efforts of two women – Linda Vergara, vice-principal of a school in Yonkers and Mary Jo Sabo, Ph.D. It represents the opportunity and the challenges of having neurofeedback in schools. The project struggled with funding from day one. A small grant was obtained for equipment, but the bulk of the effort initially was all volunteer.

The program targeted training the most difficult kids in the school. Many of these kids were ringleaders and the most difficult behaviorally. It was then expanded to two additional schools.

After the program ran for a year or two and showed itself effective by improving difficult behaviors, it received funding with the help of a city council member. Once they had funding, they hired a full-time staff member in addition to the outside supervision from Mary Jo Sabo. This helped the program immensely. Unfortunately funding was always a struggle, and the Yonkers school board was under heavy pressure to cut spending. It was a big effort to convince them to keep the funding every year. After 9/11, it simply got cut.

According to Mary Jo Sabo, because of the publicity the program received, many school superintendents traveled from around the world to see the neurofeedback program in Yonkers.  While the way the program was integrated into the school was impressive, none of the visiting superintendents ever put neurofeedback in their districts. In general, school superintendents are not themselves architects of change.