Well now, for Q & Q to have to go to this much trouble, I do believe that the attention of the "authorties" cannot be far behind.
For that I would be eternally grateful.
For those of the parents reading this, an answer is always better than the unknown. I have been there. Making a "decision" to trust an institution, when your home is laced and destroyed by mayhem and violence, has to be one of the hardest decisions of your life and no one is, on one side or the other, pushing you to decide this way or that.
Unfortuantely, HLA is NOT an option as a "holding" place. The full "committment" is a "hard" option, that is strictly enforced, no matter what they tell you.
As you research all the options, choose a truly flexible institution that after a month or two of researching your options, you can then transfer your student.
If you read my post below, I obviously DO NOT advise you to, in any way, have anything to do with this facility, but talk to the "graduated students", who have a decent, respectful, relationship with their family, are going to school, have a job and have at least somewhat, resolved the issues with their parents, that caused them to be sent away in the first place.
Rather than trust those people who are jaded by the pile of money stcked in front of them, that is leaving your pocket and going into theirs, listen to the students, who are "adults" now and responsible for their lives and actually, some of them are parents in their own right now, and give them a chance to talk to you, "heart-to-heart".
Good luck and God Bless you All. My post if to inform and help, not as a means to disparage.
There is an association of educational consultants that represent both educational consultants for youth going off to college, private school, or "alternative" schools. You can find it at
http://www.iecaonline.com.
Most hospitals, judicial organizations, insurance companies, both public and private schools, all providers for the care of our youth, make use of this association.
The correct question is, which government agency is responsible for "policeing" this organization or imposing "ethical standards" as to who can use the title of ed con and or, also belong to this organization.
As a parent of 14 yr. old, back in 2001, who I sent to first wilderness, then therapuetic boarding school in Utah, and then had the misfortune of allowing the ed con to trick me into placing at HLA, "while we got through the court process to resolve custody issues", I KNOW there is little or NO regulation of this industry.
Those of you "former" students/parents who are most angry, and determined to make this industry change, my suggestion is that you put your energy into going to schools/institutions, where these kids are all "feeding" from and make it a point to talk to those kids and their parents/caregivers, at their schools/hosptitals/institutions, who are heading this direction and really help them understand what their "choice of behaviors" are setting them up for in life.
Even better, make your government leaders "listen" to you about "concerns", for the impact these institutions are having on, some of our most vulnerable population.
If the kids think they are doing a "power trip" because of how "unfair" their life is, etc., let them know how the "HLA/corrupt power-tripping, out-of-control institutions", relative to "unfair" is going to affect their life long-term.
HLA not only bullied my child, they used their legal/psychiatric/counseling/academic/medical/placement staff, in conjunction with the first ed con (who was then fired) to totally strip me, the mother, of any power to be able to advocate on behalf of my daughter.
They empowered a totally uncaring,unparticipative rich father(you are so surprised the cozied up to the money), whose only desire was to hurt me, to use the Guardian Ad Litem in conjunction with the (second, also unprincipled) ed con, to cut me off from participating with my child's life for a year and a half and discredit me to the Court as to my activities as a parent.
In spite of all the money, manipulation, conspiring particiapted in by all the HLA/legal/ed con staff, fortunately, for both of us, my daughter and I, we were able to just "hang-in" until the whole litigation mess was over with her dad and then get away from HLA to go on to share a decent life/relationship with the rest of our family.
Buccalato intentionally "split" the parents and inflamed our whole family conflict, for the sole purpose of ensuring, as absolutely as much cash, out of this family's already tragic difficulties as he possibly could steal.
Rather than providing one iota of resolution to any of the family's "issues", ALL parties left the experience with that institution, with not only the command to HLA to never again contact any member of the family ever, for ANY reason, all parties would gladly give voice to litigation to expose the greedy, negligent practices of this institution.
My hope is that some of you that have endured at the hands of these institutions will actually, maturely go to your Congressman, Senator, Govenor, or write the President to get them to do an investigation into the industry as a whole.
There are some very good treatment places and some incredibly dedicated people to the young people who do need a "reality check".
There are some still very disturbed young people just "ragging on" otherwise credible institutions here. It's not neccessarily to those of us who were hurt, to be the ones to distinguish bad institions from the good ones, but that would be the point of "regulation" in the country in this industry.
For better or for worse, it is an industry we need, but for God's sake, someone needs to mind the fox who is guarding the chickens.
_________________
Parent who survived 3 years of child's treatment :smile:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
