Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Ridge Creek School / Hidden Lake Academy

Hearings before Congress re: schools, rtc's.

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Anonymous:
The Miller Bill, now H.R. 911 has passed in Congress and is now on to the Senate.  Below is NATSAP"S position regarding the Bill.  One can bet their bippy NATSAP shall be lobbying the Senate to see that this bill is buried.  Please call your Senator's and ask them to pass this bill.

States are better staffed and equipped to enforce existing abuse and neglect prevention statutes.  This statement  regarding States being better equipped is ridiculous.  Florida didn't know what hit them with these schools and certainly did not know what to do when faced with the death of a child.  Georgia did nothing regarding Hidden Lake Academy for near a decade, although the ORS repeatedly received complaints from parents and caved in when they received a letter from Quirk and Quirk.  The ORS kept denying HLA was indeed a TBS to parents, even when the parents had a child enrolled at Hidden Lake as a so-called "Therapeutic Boarding School".  Utah, you would like to leave it to Utah?  Nevada? I don't think so.
The only positive reply I got when seeking help:  A representative from the Department of Education said to "stay away from NATSAP Schools".  I didn't even know what NATSAP was, until I found out that my child was at a NATSAP school, Hidden Lake Academy and the founder of NATSAP was Leonard Buccellato.
When one industry needs to invent an organization to 'police' itself, look the Hell out.

Call your Senator - please.

NATSAP Position on Miller Bill

While NATSAP strongly supports the intent of this Bill – to prevent child abuse and neglect in residential programs – NATSAP believes the Bill is flawed and will not be effective or efficient in fulfilling this intent.  The Bill fails to protect children in all residential programs. This Bill also creates an entirely new federal bureaucracy that will duplicate current state-led child abuse and neglect enforcement programs and state licensing programs.  The Bill sponsors litigation against programs because it has no limits on attorney’s fees and punitive damage awards, and creates strict liability for standards that have not yet been drafted.  

•   The Bill excludes programs operated by government entities and should be amended to afford this protection to all children served in residential programs.

•   States are better staffed and equipped to enforce existing abuse and neglect prevention statutes.

•   The Bill proposes an entirely new federal bureaucracy to enforce the statute.  This new bureaucracy will duplicate existing state efforts and will be extremely expensive and inefficient to create and staff in all 50 states.

•   The Bill allows new access to federal courts and unlimited attorney’s fees and punitive damage awards.  Parties already have the right to access state and federal courts.  These provisions may make liability insurance for member programs unobtainable or prohibitively expensive.

NATSAP has worked since our founding to establish ethical and operational principles for member programs.  To this end NATSAP requires by January 1, 2009 that all member programs be state licensed or externally accredited by an approved accreditation organization.  All 50 states have existing programs to investigate and enforce laws that prohibit child abuse and neglect.  


NATSAP
(928) 443-9505 – Phone
info@natsap.org
126 N. Marina St., Ste. 2
Prescott, AZ 86301

psy:

--- Quote from: "guest30" ---To this end NATSAP requires by January 1, 2009 that all member programs be state licensed or externally accredited by an approved accreditation organization.
--- End quote ---

LOL...  I was wondering why benchmark got "accredited" just recently.


--- Quote from: "Benchmark" ---Benchmark Young Adult School announces that they have been designated a Class VII Fully Accredited Academic Institution by the National Private Schools Accreditation Alliance (NPSAA), with all rights and privileges therein.
--- End quote ---

So I googled NPSAA which offers a "fast track" to "accredit" schools....

http://www.npsag.com/ <- LOL

Not impressed with NATSAP's standards of what is an "approved accreditation organization"... but what the hell else do you expect from an organization owned and run by industry members.  Good luck in getting a college to accept those credits!

NATSAP still pushes Benchmark as a program, though, despite the fact it is not licensed as one.

http://www.natsap.org/program_details.asp?id=11

What is it.  Is it a program or a school?  They can't seem to decide, and not even the judge in Benchmark v. Crawford could figure that out.

Industry schools want this mystical middleground between funny farm and boarding school with the benefits of both and the drawback of none (such as regulation, requirements for licensed counselors, etc...).

My opinion is that you can pass all the legislation you want and they're just going to claim it doesn't apply to them or that they are already licensed as something else.  IMO, education and media is the key... but if people want to waste their time and hope on government intervention... by all means go ahead.  I haven't seen the government get anything right in a long time but... who knows.. you might get lucky.

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