The Yonkers Project
First major school success

The Yonkers Project was set up in a Yonkers, NY public school in 1995 and ended in 2001.  It 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, 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 with difficult behavior, it received funding with the help of a city council member.  Once the funding occurred, they hired a full time staff member along with outside supervision from Mary Jo Sabo. This helped the program immensely.  But funding was always a bit of struggle - 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 from around the world came to see neurofeedback at the Yonkers Project.  How the program was integrated into the school program was impressive.  But none of them ever actually put neurofeedback in their program.  In general, school superintendents are not themselves architects of change.