Independent secondary schools assume responsibility for the mental health needs of their boarding student populations generally with little guidance other than their own staff and anecdotal experiences. Given the prevalence of mental health problems affecting adolescents and the developmental challenges inherent to this population, inadequate services can pose serious adverse consequences. In an attempt to clarify early guidelines of a model of mental health for such schools, this study sought to qualitatively define the types of services available to students in these settings, and the factors which appear to influence adolescents access to mental health care. Through the use of an open-ended, 22-item, interview questionnaire, the authors interviewed the "director" of mental health services at 19 identified schools in a small sample of independent, secondary, college-preparatory, boarding schools in one northeastern state. Through the use of descriptive statistics, the authors found that tremendous diversity exists within this sample and offer some early guidelines of mental health services for such schools in the areas of administration, structure of services, confidentiality/repercussion issues, and systems issues.