I believe we all expected that in this day and age Georgia would have strict laws governing who can dispense prescription medications in Residential Child Care Facilities. What we have discovered, quite painfully and at the expense of our children, is that Georgia is backwards and does not protect the children in their state with simple, concise laws and regulations. We've also discovered that people such as Bucci will exploit every weakness to his advantage to get his greedy paws on a dollar and it will be at the expense of your child's health and well-being.
I specifically asked about the medical staff and how medications were administered/dispensed and was told HLA had a full-time nurse on staff. I was led to believe the full-time nurse was a requirement because of some Georiga law. Boy were we wrong. Unfortunately we didn't find this out until AFTER incidents starting occuring and HLA was called out on the carpet for these incidents. Ah, but disclose an issue at HLA and all of sudden you're labeled as being difficult and not working with the program. What's even more unbelievable is staff there trying to deny medications were dispensed incorrectly or that kids ran out of medications and went without them for days. We were also led to believe that HLA was a LICENSED therapeutic boarding school - the state of Georgia does not license or recognize TBS's. Imagine the shock when we called the state to inquire about licensure and found out the only rules/laws/regulations that applied to HLA could be those that applied to say a tent & awning company because HLA was only registered as a regular business AND, most important to remember, is that HLA fought licensure for years until we all stepped in and threatened legal action against the state for failing to protect these children.
The bottom-line is HLA marketed themselves as having top-notch staff who would provide excellent care and treatment for our children. There was a high expectation from my perspective that HLA would provide what was promised, but they failed miserably. Did they break any laws? I would actually say no because those laws never applied to them because they were never licensed. If anything good has come from this it is the fact that we have helped put measures in place to ensure the safety and well-being of any child who may be placed in one of Bucci's programs. It won't stop there though - that I will promise you.
I am sorry you had to go thru that 99, I was fortunate that my daughter received very good care at the program she attended. They lived up to what they marketed. If that was not the case and she was damaged in any way by I would be feeling the same way you do.
I tend to agree with you that no laws were broken, although they were not honest with the parents. There are enough people here on fornits ready to jump on them for the slightest infraction and if HLA did cross the line we would see the HLA board light up here. Like I mentioned I wouldn’t send my child to HLA after what I have learned about it here on fornits from hearing stories from people like yourself and Jill Ryan. I don’t think it does anyone any good to lie about what they experienced and stretch the truth in obvious desperation to discredit HLA at all costs like some posters here do (not mentioning any names).
What goes a long way in exposing damaging programs is being consistent and truthful in each person story and experiences. When the stories don’t match up it really throws doubt onto what to really believe, in my opinion. Getting the word out that HLA and their leadership staff has not been honest with the parents and treatment of their children will go a long way in raising the awareness needed to dissuade other parents who may be considering placement at HLA or Ridge Creek School.
