Residential facilities for disabled kids reaping taxpayer funds
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Across the country, many for-profit residential facilities in the so-called troubled teen industry that claim to treat severe mental and behavioral health issues in children and teens are deftly tapping into taxpayer money meant for students with disabilities.
Even in the face of increasing scrutiny over the safety of such private institutions, this money continues to flow given the fractured bureaucracy of the special education system, an Associated Press investigation finds.
The playbook to profits includes operating on stand-alone contracts with individual school districts and drawing out-of-state kids — both of which effectively dilute any regulatory oversight. Residential centers are also capitalizing on a catch-all disability category, experts said, and relying on a shadow network of educational consultants who help get them business.
Meg Appelgate, CEO of Unsilenced, a nonprofit that supports former residential attendees, said the problem is that there are so few standard rules attached, from how centers get approved to provide special education services, to the lack of transparency when a student from any one district alleges abuse.
“It’s a huge issue,” Appelgate said. “It’s simply got too many holes in it and we have to shut it down.”
A fraught loophole
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the federal law that allows special education money to pay for residential placements. Services are determined in the child’s Individualized Education Program plan, commonly known as an IEP, which is funded by a mix of local school district, state and federal dollars. . . .
“Education systems are often under a lot of pressure to meet specialized needs,” Rodriguez said. “They have completely different legal mandates, but you know the risk is the same ... they’re exposing youth to the same harm — no matter who is funding them.”
California state Sen. Shannon Grove said communication was “broken” after the child welfare system stopped sending foster kids out of state, so she championed a new law last year requiring education officials to interview students in person and hold quarterly calls with them on an unmonitored phone line.
“We don’t even have a face-to-face interview with these kids who could be there for months, even years. That’s completely unacceptable,” Grove said.
Special education funding for residential placement often relies on the catch-all “emotional disturbance” disability category. . . .
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