Mary Ann Davies has spent more than $100,000 in the last year to send her 16-year-old daughter to one private counseling and educational program after another. She has just signed up to go further into debt, committing herself to spend another $100,000 over the next two years for a boarding school in New York that she hopes will help her daughter overcome a drug problem.

"We're saving this life," said Ms. Davies, who works in advertising in Richmond, Va. "You can't put a price on that."

More and more parents of troubled teenagers are following the same course and sending their children to special programs -- no matter the cost. At the same time, the number of programs available has soared. They differ from the tough boot camps and the long-term psychiatric stays that were the main options a couple of decades ago. The new "feel good" programs combine therapy and education, often in an outdoor setting, at an average cost of $5,000 a month.

Those numbers have drawn the attention of some big money investors, who see a growing need for the kind of services these programs provide. Although there have been allegations of abuse within the industry, and those have garnered most of the media attention on the schools, officials at several companies said almost all the incidents had been at a handful of less reputable programs.