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Exclusive: Second juvenile home accused of violations

Clark Kauffman
ckauffman@dmreg.com

A second state-run facility for delinquent youths has failed to provide adequate schooling for disadvantaged children, according to two sets of investigators.

Register Exclusive

Based on those findings, advocates for the disabled are now asking state officials to begin examining the State Training School for Boys in Eldora's use of isolation, at least with regard to its impact on the youths' schooling.

Like the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo, which served delinquent girls until it was shut down in January by order of the governor, the Eldora facility is alleged to have violated state and federal regulations that require a minimum level of educational services for its special-education students.

Its staff appears to have "little understanding and appreciation for meeting the individual learning needs" of children with disabilities, according to a newly disclosed report by Iowa Department of Education investigators.

The Eldora facility provides housing, schooling and treatment for boys ages 12 to 18 who have been in trouble with the law, designated delinquents, and court-ordered to the facility. Many of the youths have committed felony offenses and have serious behavioral issues. More than half are in need of special education.

Both the Toledo home and the Eldora facility are staffed and managed by the Iowa Department of Human Services — the same state agency that is charged with protecting the health and welfare of children throughout Iowa. A spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad said the governor is confident the Eldora facility is moving forward to quickly correct all of the alleged violations of federal regulations.

The new findings are unexpected because DHS was put on notice 16 months ago that it had been violating, through practices and policies at Toledo, a variety of state and federal regulations that also apply to the Eldora home.

Branstad spokesman Jimmy Centers said state agencies began helping the State Training School for Boys identify and address any problems last fall, rather than waiting for the Department of Education's expected review.

DHS spokeswoman Amy Lorentzen McCoy said "a number of improvements have been in process over the past year," including improved staff training and the hiring of additional workers.

"Changes to the program must be thoughtful and thorough and include assistance from our partners," she said. "DHS welcomes both the direction and resources identified in the report to further address deficiencies."

Budget analysts say the educational failures at the Iowa Juvenile Home could cost Iowa taxpayers more than $1 million in "compensatory education" for former residents who were denied schooling while kept in isolation cells for extended periods. It's not yet clear what impact the new findings at the Eldora home could have on the state budget.

Many of the problems at the Iowa Juvenile Home were uncovered by investigators working for the federally funded advocacy group Disability Rights Iowa. The problems were subsequently verified by investigators working for the Iowa Department of Education.

Recently, both organizations — acting independently — investigated the Eldora home's compliance with the laws and regulations that guarantee a minimum level of educational services for special-education students. Both organizations concluded that the Eldora facility was not meeting those requirements.

Education agency sees problems

Disability Rights Iowa began its investigation in February, asking for copies of the facility's individualized education plans for all of the boys living at the home who were eligible for special education. When DRI investigators received those plans a few weeks later, they noticed almost all were dated after the records were requested — suggesting that DHS officials may have created the documents in response to the request.

"That raised some red flags for us," said DRI investigator Nathan Kirstein.

Kirstein then asked DHS to turn over the previous educational plans for each of those boys, and the department complied.

A week later, the Department of Education made a long-planned visit to the Eldora facility to conduct the sort of on-site review that it's required to perform every five years at such facilities.

Among the department's findings:

• Although DHS says the home represents youths' "last chance to redirect their lives before falling into the adult correctional system," investigators found its transitional services, designed to help boys make the move to independent living and successful employment, were seriously lacking. For example, the employment expectations for one youth were based on his desire to play basketball for Duke University and become a plastic surgeon, yet there was no assessment of his abilities to achieve those goals.

• Most of the written assessments of the youths' functional behavior were outdated, having been written years before by other health professionals before each child was admitted to the school.

• The youths' educational plans were not individualized to meet their specific needs and instead reflected DHS' establishment of what investigators called a one-size-fits-all "campus-wide behavioral management system."

• Many of the behavioral interventions that the Eldora home planned for individual boys were counterproductive and would "specifically reinforce the problem behaviors," the Department of Education found.

• Some of the facility's written assessments of individual youths were unsophisticated and included descriptions of behavior that were impossible to measure, such as "class clown," "getting an attitude," "wears saggy pants," and "pouty."

• Data on behavioral changes wasn't collected and reported in a timely fashion, despite policies that called for it to be done every other month.

Disability group conducts 2nd probe

In early April, after the Department of Education completed its work, Disability Rights Iowa wrote to the attorney general's office and said investigators would soon visit the State Training School for Boys to interview workers and some youths.

In response, Assistant Attorney General Gretchen Kraemer questioned the group's plans, pointing out that DRI's access to information should be based on probable cause of abuse or neglect.

DRI investigator Kirstein argued back to Kraemer that probable cause was based on abuse or neglect in the form of inadequate schooling. He noted the state's own Department of Education had already determined there was "a lack of adequate special education being provided to these youth."

On April 23, Kirstein and colleague Beth Ryd­berg traveled to Eldora and interviewed several staff and youths at the home. "All of the violations that the Department of Education found, we found as well," Kirstein said.

The Department of Education recently ordered DHS to take corrective action on all of the violations, in part by consulting with a national expert on transitional services for incarcerated youth. The Eldora staff also must undergo training on special-education laws.

Kirstein said Disability Rights Iowa agrees with the Department of Education about how the problems in Eldora should be addressed — with one exception. Disability Rights Iowa wants the state to offer "compensatory education" to the youths who didn't receive adequate schooling at the Eldora home, as the state has done for former residents of the Iowa Juvenile Home.

Jane Hudson, executive director of Disability Rights Iowa, said her agency is negotiating that issue with the governor's staff and Department of Education personnel. She said her agency is not facing the same resistance to change that was initially exhibited by the Iowa Juvenile Home last year.

"At Eldora, they have agreed to bring in a national expert on transitional services to work with them, so there are a lot of positive changes they are making," she said.

Department asked to investigate isolation

At the same time, Disability Rights Iowa wants a closer examination of the Eldora home's use of isolation — but only as it relates to the denial of educational services.

"We've asked the Department of Education to look more in depth at the disciplinary procedures in the school and the use of seclusion," he said. "But this won't go into whether they are using seclusion in accordance with state law. This would be about whether they are doing the proper things, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, that need to be done when they remove someone from the classroom."

Hudson said the narrower focus on educational issues makes sense given her agency's limited resources. Last year's broad-based investigation of the Iowa Juvenile Home consumed a lot of staff time, she said.

"It was very intense for us at Toledo," she said. "Nate invested his time through 16 monitoring visits there, so we just decided this year, with Eldora, we'd focus on the educational issues."

A 2012 accreditation report on the facility found that between 2009 and 2011, the home's use of 4-point and 5-point physical restraints — which typically involve strapping a person to a bed or chair — increased 471 percent, from 14 incidents to 80. During that time, the number of youths at the home declined 22 percent.

The accrediting team from the American Correctional Association reported that it "expressed concern" about the facility's use of the restraint-bed and restraint-chair, but then awarded the home full accreditation for the next three years.

Like the Iowa Juvenile Home, the Eldora facility is not licensed and regulated by the state agency that oversees privately run care facilities for Iowa youth. As a result, there are no periodic state inspections that examine issues related to housing and treatment.

ABOUT THE HOME

The State Training School for Boys in Eldora serves about 330 delinquent boys each year, although the average daily census is 124. The home provides housing, education and treatment services. All of the youths admitted are there by virtue of a court order, which often stems from serious criminal activity. Most have at least seven prior out-of-home placements, such as foster-family care or institutional care.

The home employs 165 people who work on a 36-building campus spread out over 45 acres.

Typically, 50 to 60 percent of the youths are eligible for special education. According to the Iowa Department of Human Services, which runs the home, 73 percent of the youths at the home show improvement in reading during their stay, and 60 percent show improvement in their math scores.

TIMELINE

MAY 2013: The Des Moines Register reports that four workers have been fired from the Iowa Juvenile Home for improperly restraining youths there. The Register obtains security camera footage showing two workers throwing a girl to the floor and forcibly restraining her.

JULY 2013: The Register reports that Disability Rights Iowa, a federally funded advocacy group, is investigating the home's use of long-term isolation. The organization found that three girls lived in concrete-block cells at the home for two to 12 months. In response, Gov. Terry Branstad defends the home, saying he's sure it is "implementing a high level of care." He expresses his full support for Charles Palmer, director of the Department of Human Services, which runs the home.

AUGUST 2013: The Register reports that the home had been using long-term isolation, sometimes in violation of court orders, for at least 17 years. After the state ombudsman and Senate Government Oversight Committee announce their intention to examine problems at the home, Branstad issues an executive order creating a task force to examine those issues.

OCTOBER 2013: The Iowa Department of Education finds the Iowa Juvenile Home is understaffed, underfunded and has repeatedly failed to offer children an adequate education. The agency orders compensatory education for all the youths who were denied proper schooling, at an estimated cost of more than $1 million.

DECEMBER 2013: Branstad orders the Department of Human Services to close down the Iowa Juvenile Home.

FEBRUARY 2014: A Polk County judge orders the state to reopen the Iowa Juvenile Home, stating that Branstad overstepped his constitutional authority by choosing to bypass the Iowa Legislature in closing the home. Branstad appeals the ruling, and the Iowa Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments in the case, effectively placing on hold the lower court's order. The court has yet to schedule those arguments.

MARCH-MAY 2014: The Iowa Department of Education and Disability Rights Iowa investigate the educational services provided to dozens of youths at the state-run State Training School for Boys in Eldora. Both conclude the home is in violation of federal regulations requiring a minimum level of services for special-education students.