Child Welfare Boss On War Path Over Brat Camp

[Anonymous]

Child welfare boss on war path over camp `counseling'
By Lauren Beckham Falcone
Sunday, July 31, 2005

ABC's summer reality hit ``Brat Camp'' has made the head of the Child Welfare League of America one unhappy camper.
 
     CWLA Executive Director and CEO Shay Bilchik has asked the Government Accounting Office to investigate ``anecdotal reports'' of abuse and neglect at residential boarding schools and boot camps for out-of-control children.
 
     ``When this type of camp is publicized, it makes it appear that it's something a parent should consider doing,'' Bilchik said. ``A lot of these programs can be harming kids. A number are reported to be excessive, but because many are unlicensed and unregulated, we don't know if the abuses are real or not.''
 
     Bilchik's group wants the GAO to study ``Brat Camp''-like programs and report to Congress on what kind of regulations, oversight and funding might be in order to better protect children.
 
     ``Brat Camp'' features nine troubled kids who are unwittingly sent to Sage Walk, a 60-day survival camp in central Oregon that promises to break their reckless behavior through therapy and outdoor living. Such programs can cost anywhere from $13,000 to $25,000.
 
     ``Brat Camp'' has come under fire from child advocates who say it exploits the participants and suggests to parents that tough-love schools and camps are the only option for wayward kids.
 
     ``First of all, when do we call troubled kids `brats'?'' asked Andrea Watson, founder of Parents for Residential Reform - A Project of the Federation of Children With Special Needs in Massachusetts.
 
     ``No responsible (program) would allow taking kids or adolescents who have issues of any sort and put them on a reality TV show for viewer enjoyment. Shame on that provider.''
 
     Bill Lyttle, executive director of the Framingham-based Key Program, a nonprofit residential and nonresidential program for kids from DSS, DYS and DMH, said he doesn't think that boot camps and ``scared straight'' programs - televised or not - do much good.
 
     ``Maybe for a couple of kids, but the fact that it's publicized seems exploitive,'' he said.  

From 1980 to 2001, at least 31 teenagers in 11 states died at outdoor camps from troubled youths, according to a 2001 report in The New York Times. Most recently, a 13-year-old boy died in May at a state-run camp for troubled youth in Atlanta after counselors restrained the boy and refused to give him his inhaler.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegio ... at=&page=1

This is very very good news.  The GAO is the congressional investigative arm.  

BARBE
Tausa

http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org/foreveryoung.html

[Deborah]

Hey, the deaths got a mention. But my records indicate 45 between 1980-2001, and 52 to date.  101 if we include RTCs.

While they're at it, the GAO should also investigate how much taxpayer money earmarked for education is being spent fraudulently on these 'therapeutic' programs.
[ This Message was edited by: Deborah on 2005-07-30 23:16 ]

[Deborah]

http://www.cwla.org/execdir/edbio.htm

Mr. Bilchik expanded the League's programmatic focus by creating several new divisions related to behavioral health, juvenile justice, and child and youth development; strengthened its research capacity; and focused its work on issues related to children with incarcerated parents, Indian Child Welfare, and the child welfare workforce. He has enhanced CWLA's work on state level policy issues, and through the Framework and its companion Community Implementation Guide, has imbedded its work more deeply in the communities that CWLA and its member agencies serve. He has also been instrumental in expanding the League's funding base, and while maintaining its primary focus on child welfare issues, has developed key partnerships with such organizations as the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Mr. Bilchik oversees a staff of more than 120 and a budget of $20 million.

Mr. Bilchik came to CWLA from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to serving as OJJDP Administrator from 1994-2000, he served the Department as Associate Deputy Attorney General. At OJJDP, he focused on developing policies and programs that supported efforts to reduce juvenile offending and victimization. He significantly increased the department's involvement in addressing dependency court reform, child abuse and neglect, children's exposure to violence, and issues related to missing and exploited children. Before coming to the nation's capital, Mr. Bilchik was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami, Florida from 1977-1993, where he served as a trial lawyer, juvenile division chief, and Chief Assistant for Administration. As Chief Assistant, he had supervisory authority over all child protection and juvenile delinquency related activities. In this capacity, he established and had oversight responsibility for the Child Advocacy Center, a multidisciplinary intake unit for child abuse cases.

Throughout his career, Mr. Bilchik has been involved in drafting key juvenile justice and child abuse legislative proposals, as well as authoring many articles and opinion pieces on children's issues.

[Anonymous]

This is a guy who really cares, and was mortified when I had called him to talk to him about Brat Camp - he knew about it but had not spoken out in a public way for the League as of yet, so this article has a lot of teeth.  It is a start and should if passed along get the national attention it needs...so we should all work together for a common cause here.
Andrea

[BuzzKill]

Excelent - looks like the old Boarding School Truth site.

I hope people wil use it.

There is another new forum here as well:

http://nu-industry.com/forum/

[Deborah]

The Office of Inspector General's 2000 study on the (lack of) Oversight of RTCs

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... rt=0#84989

[Jeff_Berryman]

Has anyone heard from Boarding School Truth of Late?  None of My E-mails have gotten through in at least a year.