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JTC Academy was founded in 2007 by Bernie and Amy Polt, about 8 years after our residential center, Transitional Center Inc.(TCI), started its operations in 1999 at St. Mary’s Hospital.  The residential facility started as a twelve-bed facility for adolescent males ranging in age from 12-18 years while at St. Mary’s in 1999, founded by Bernie Polt.  Our residential treatment facility has evolved and grown since then and we currently operate a 48-bed residential program in Cahokia Heights, IL, still serving adolescent males in need of intensive and extensive behavioral and psychotherapy residential treatment while focusing on transitioning residents to less restrictive environments.  TCI is expanding its operations and will have a 96-bed capacity by August of 2026.

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In order to provide academic programming, continuity of care and a streamlined process for providing services at the residential center, in 2007, planning for school operations began. In less than a year’s time, JTC Academy opened and was housed at the residential facility in the south wing of the building as an alternative educational placement for youth needing non-public special education services. JTC Academy serviced current residential youth but in a short period of time, the academy began receiving requests for placements by District 189 for non-residential special education youth. As JTC Academy began to accept non-residential students into the school program, the school program grew exponentially requiring a much larger off-site location to accommodate this increased population of youth. 

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The first off-site location for JTC Academy was the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center. The academy rented space and remained at this location for about 1 school year until renovations began at the center requiring JTC Academy to relocate. At this time, JTC Academy rented the Attucks School Building from District 189. After a couple years at Attucks, District 189 began placing some of their unused school buildings up for bid.  JTC Academy immediately embraced this opportunity, bid on and purchased the Brown School at 4850 Market St. in Centreville, Illinois, which became and is now JTC Academy West.  A few years later, JTC Academy acquired the Center for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) which is now JTC East. 

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JTC Academy is expanding its therapeutic educational services with the opening of a new campus in St. Louis, Missouri, for the 2025–2026 school year.  With a long-standing commitment to meeting the needs of students facing significant emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges, we are very excited to now be extending these services directly into Missouri.

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