Persistent Problems At School Prompt MoveBy COLIN POITRAS And JOSH KOVNER
Courant Staff Writers
May 10, 2007
The Department of Children and Families is pulling all of its children out of a
Durham boarding school because the 116-bed facility has repeatedly failed to
meet state standards for care.
The agency's acting commissioner, Brian Mattiello, said Wednesday the 47 state
children living at Lake Grove at Durham will be moved out of the program by
Sept. 15.
All of the children have developmental disabilities and many also have serious
psychological or sexual behavior problems.
DCF's decision to remove children from the school comes after two years of
trying to work with Lake Grove to address problems with its medical and
psychiatric care, staff supervision and record-keeping, officials said. While
some improvements have been made in recent months, the facility has
consistently failed to maintain the quality of those services, prompting
Wednesday's decision, officials said.
Connecticut's Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein and Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal praised DCF's decision to act. The pair have been highly critical of
Lake Grove's failure to provide adequate care over the past two years and they
are continuing to investigate programs there.
"Long ago we revealed well-documented deficiencies in care at Lake Grove...,"
Milstein and Blumenthal said in a joint statement. "Lake Grove's lapses were so
grossly serious as to create possible risk of injury or death. We are pleased
that DCF has finally taken our concerns seriously."
The school is part of the Lake Grove family of nonprofit schools and associated
real estate and management companies operating in Connecticut, Massachusetts
and New York.
Albert Brayson III, formerly of Simsbury, is one of the chief executives of the
parent company, and he controls related businesses that charged Lake Grove at
Durham hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in consulting fees, according to
business records in Connecticut and New York.
Lake Grove at Durham is a sister school to Haddam Hills, an East Haddam
residential facility for boys closed by DCF in 2001 after state investigators
found evidence of drug use, violence and child abuse and neglect at the 40-bed
center.
The state child welfare agency - under pressure from Milstein and Blumenthal -
has been working with Lake Grove to address problems since 2005.
DCF's involvement took a more serious turn in January when the agency closed
admissions to Lake Grove. At that time, DCF cited the facility's inadequate
medical and psychiatric care, the staff's lack of access to emergency medical
equipment such as epinephrine pens and emergency inhalers and a lack of
documentation about medication errors and who was administering medication.
The DCF lifted the admissions ban in late March after some improvements were
made. But those improvements were not maintained to DCF's satisfaction, state
officials said Wednesday, prompting the agency's decision this week to stop
using Lake Grove.
Lake Grove, like Haddam Hills, has been a primary placement for some of DCF's
most troubled children since it opened in 1985. The children being displaced
from the institution will be moved to programs in Massachusetts, specialized
group homes and foster homes, Mattiello said.
"DCF will place these children in alternative treatment settings that are
consistent with the department's philosophy of providing service in smaller and
more community-based programs," Mattiello said.
Lake Grove, at 459R Wallingford Road, receives about $6.5 million annually from
DCF for its services.
The agency stopped short of revoking Lake Grove's license as part of its
decision Wednesday, meaning the organization can still treat and receive
children from other states if it so chooses. But a state-sanctioned cap on
admissions put in place in March continues, officials said. Lake Grove's
current license limits its census to 90 children instead of 116. On Wednesday,
about 70 children remained at the school, officials said.
What impact DCF's decision would have on Lake Grove's business operations was
unclear. Lake Grove's Chief Administrator Tom B. Gillung did not return several
phone messages left at his office. Gillung is a former bureau chief for special
education and pupil services for the state Department of Education.
Mattiello said DCF is notifying other states of its decision to stop sending
children to Lake Grove.
Lake Grove's problems are not limited to DCF. The state Department of Education
granted Lake Grove a six-month extension of its educational license last year,
the minimum allowed under law, because of its ongoing concerns about the
quality of the education program there. That license was set to expire on Dec.
31, 2006.
State education officials said Wednesday records show the license is still in
good standing, but it was unclear Wednesday whether that status was extended
temporarily or whether Lake Grove's license was renewed in good standing.
In early March, DCF officials had cited Lake Grove for 14 areas of
noncompliance including "inadequate or nonexistent policies and procedures,"
failure to adequately conduct criminal background checks of staff members and
failure to provide medical emergency treatment on a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week
basis.
The DCF also cited Lake Grove at Durham for failing to maintain adequate
financial records or provide DCF with key financial documents so the agency can
monitor costs. It was not the first time Lake Grove's finances and those of its
parent company have been questioned.
In November 2005, Milstein and Blumenthal announced they were looking into all
aspects of Lake Grove's operations including examining hundreds of thousands of
dollars in annual fees that Lake Grove pays related companies for consulting
services.
Both officials said they were concerned that DCF has failed to monitor Lake
Grove's finances and delivery of care effectively. Like Haddam Hills, Lake
Grove at Durham was alleged to have been paying millions of dollars to related
companies for rent and consulting work - driving up the fees that the state
paid to send troubled children there.
Lake Grove at Durham paid Windwood Meadow Inc. and Oikonomos Inc., both of
Medford, N.Y., - two companies that are linked in business records to Brayson -
$4.7 million from 1998 to 2003 for personnel and management services, federal
financial filings show.
Blumenthal said at the time that those types of "close-party relationships can
indicate conflicts of interest and waste, as well as fraud."
Investigators with the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services in New
York, in a recent investigation, noted what they termed "questionable
management contracts" between the Lake Grove treatment facilities there and
Oikonomos and Windwood Meadow Inc. - the same arrangement that raised red flags
in Connecticut.
Blumenthal and Milstein said Wednesday their investigation of Lake Grove
"remains active and ongoing."
