Another Iowa facility faulted for failures in education

A fourth Iowa facility is facing criticism for falling short of minimum standards for educating children in its care.

The Mental Health Institute in Independence — which provides housing, treatment and schooling for children with behavioral problems — has placed a "serious lack of emphasis on the importance of education" and has actually rewarded some children for failing to attend class, according to a report issued Friday by the Iowa Department of Education.

The report, based on an on-site visit by Department of Education investigators, also alleges that Department of Human Services officials coached workers at MHI on what they could and couldn't tell investigators.

The report follows similar findings of special-education failures at the DHS-run State Training School for Boys in Eldora and the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo, and at the privately run but publicly funded Clarinda Academy. The findings in each have been similar: Instructors fail to customize programs for students or get them the services they need, instead using a cookie-cutter approach to providing education.

Nathan Kirstein, an attorney with Disability Rights Iowa, said it's troubling to see four separate facilities for Iowa's youth — including three run by the state itself — fail to meet the minimum standards for educating those children.

"Yeah, it's looking like we have a problem here in Iowa," he said. "We need to have a systemic approach to solving this problem. It's clear the problem is broader than just these facilities. We need to look at all of our facilities in Iowa, public and private, and decide what we're going to do about the deficiencies there."

Director of DHS pledges changes

In a written statement, DHS Director Charles Palmer said the agency is working to make "meaningful changes to improve the quality of special education" and correct the problems identified in the report. The Iowa Department of Education says it will appoint a special-education administrator to oversee DHS's efforts to correct the problems at MHI.

"We see these reviews as an opportunity to further the discussion on how best to serve the special-education needs of unique and challenging populations," Palmer said.

The facility in Independence is a 181-bed psychiatric hospital that provides inpatient treatment for adults and children, as well as a residential program specifically for children. The on-campus school is run by the institute and provides general-education studies, along with the special-education programming that's required by three-fourths of the students there.

Among the findings in the new report:

For at least two years, MHI used a system whereby students earned points, through good behavior, that enabled them to attend school. Staffers reported that within the last year, some students were barred from attending class because they hadn't accumulated enough points. The practice of requiring special-education students to earn school as a privilege is prohibited by federal law. The superintendent of MHI told investigators the point system was abolished in January.

MHI workers said they lacked even basic information about the children there because of poor internal communication. For example, school workers said they did not know whether their students had allergies.

Some of the interventions intended to curb bad behavior are counterproductive. "For example, if students refuse to attend school, they may be rewarded by being allowed to watch television all day," the report said. When students refuse to attend school, little is done to encourage them to change their minds, the Department of Education found. Workers told investigators they've been advised that education is not important at MHI.

The "culture and climate" at MHI must be changed as part of a broad, systemic plan to address specific problems at the institute. The report said MHI workers "reported being coached or directly told what they could or could not say" to the investigators from the Department of Education. DHS spokeswoman Amy McCoy said that the agency would look into that allegation, but that MHI employees "have been — and will continue to be — instructed to answer questions honestly and completely."

Students' behavioral assessments do not appear to meet their individual needs, are not updated and are not reviewed.

Some students are not allowed to attend class in a locked ward and are instead placed in a hallway — potentially violating the law against placing special-education students in the least restrictive environment.

Spokeswoman notes improvements

McCoy said the Department of Education's findings address policies and practices over the past two years and "do not encompass many recent improvements made to the MHI special-education programs." The MHI staff, she said, now reviews all of the students' individualized education plans, and the facility has hired a psychologist, child psychiatrist and special-education consultant.

The Department of Education also issued a report Friday that focused on the DHS-run Mental Health Institute in Cherokee. That report cited only one problem requiring corrective action: a conflict in the laws that speak to the housing and education of students older than 18. However, the Cherokee facility typically houses children for less than 10 days, so the educational demands on that home aren't as great as they are elsewhere.

Recently, the Department of Education issued a report on special education services at the Clarinda Academy. The department said the academy violated some of the federal special-education laws that the Eldora, Toledo, and Independence facilities are alleged to have violated.

The Iowa Juvenile Home was closed in January, following revelations in The Des Moines Register that the facility was keeping children in concrete-block isolation cells for months at a time.

The Department of Education report on the State Training School for Boys said the staff there appeared to have "little understanding and appreciation for meeting the individual learning needs" of children with disabilities.