DALLAS and NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Pharos Capital Group, LLC (“Pharos”), through its Family Treatment Network platform (“FTN”), announced today that it has acquired the CCMC School, based in New Britain, CT. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The CCMC School, an affiliate of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, provides comprehensive special education for students, from age five to 21, who require intensive intervention due to a range of behavioral, emotional and learning challenges. The CCMC School, which will be known as Solterra Academy following the end of the summer 2018 session, serves more than 100 children annually. Pharos established its Family Treatment Network platform to manage its investments in special schools, psychiatric residential treatment centers and community-based programs for children, adolescents and their families.

Gwen Killheffer, Ed.D., principal of the CCMC School, and her team of highly specialized and trained administrators, teachers, and clinicians will continue to lead classroom learning for the students. In addition, Ed Irby, a longtime behavioral health and special education executive who heads the FTN platform, will continue to serve as Chairman of FTN and lead the company’s strategic and growth initiatives.

“We are excited to be working with FTN and the Pharos team,” said Dr. Killheffer. “We are confident they share our vision of providing a high level of quality behavioral healt

h and educational services for children, tailored to individual and family needs, in a caring environment. We are also excited about the new level of autism services FTN will bring to the population of students in our school and communities.”

Jim Shmerling, DHA, FACHE, President and CEO of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center added, “Recognizing the unmet needs of children and families in Connecticut, FTN has chosen to bring new resources into our community. We believe this arrangement will elevate the CCMC School and its programs with an injection of new resources and national leadership, and enhance the impact our hospital can have throughout our state.”

“The acquisition of the CCMC School greatly enhances our behavioral health portfolio as FTN continues to expand its breadth of services while maintaining our primary focus on clinical quality,” said Jim Phillips, Partner at Pharos. “The CCMC School has tremendous potential for further growth.”

The CCMC School acquisition is the latest addition to FTN’s expanding portfolio of behavioral health organizations. Earlier this year, FTN acquired Behavior Care Specialists (BCS), a Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based outpatient treatment provider of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) services based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), serving 140 children across four states. BCS founder, Alison Hulshof, will work closely with Dr. Killheffer and her team to expand the CCMC School’s existing services to include intensive early intervention and school consultations using the strategies of ABA. The FTN team will also be focused on extending BCS’s home and community-based ASD services, including ABA therapy programs, to serve children and their families throughout Connecticut and the Northeast.

The Braff Group served as exclusive merger and acquisition advisor for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.