DeSisto was a teacher, unlicensed therapist, and director for eleven years at The Lake Grove School on Long Island, New York.

[9] The DeSisto at Stockbridge School closed permanently in June 2004, amid commonwealth allegations that it did not create a safe environment for its students.

"[13] At Adelphi, administrator Margaret Elaine Wittman said, "there are no records of DeSisto having been a faculty member, the man is completely foreign to us, the fact that he would say this on his vita is incredible.

The real story is one of firings from teaching posts and inflated representations of his professional stature.Yet those credentials are a significant aspect of the almost overwhelmingly positive publicity he has received—on the Today show, in Life, Time and People magazines, and in numerous newspaper articles—and the subsequent financial success he has achieved with his private preparatory schools.

The Sentinel found that, "the presentation of one story in the three-day series may have led to the unintentionally misleading conclusion that his entire career was built on false credentials.

published articles calling into question whether DeSisto actually held a master's degree in psychology from the University of Massachusetts, as he claimed, or did not.

He was an outstanding educator, a compassionate counselor, a popular author, a skilled communicator and founder of the DeSisto School, a therapeutic-educational community for troubled teenagers.

"[16] In 1999, DeSisto produced an off-off-Broadway musical Inappropriate[17][18] with Lonnie McNeil and Michael Sottile based on the journals and life experiences of the student performers.

In 1987 DeSisto married Margie Charles Bullock in a ceremony on the Stockbridge campus lasting three days that included two live elephants, three hot air balloons, and fireworks.