Well, yeah, you can't get blood out of a turnip.
What somewhat concerns me is all the CEDU staff scattered to the four winds being picked up by other places out there. I don't suppose we'll be lucky enough that they'll all find different fields of endeavor and make more money and be very happy doing something, somewhere, anywhere, that doesn't involve them interacting with teenagers or children.
I wish people had to be licensed to work in these facilities under a national board with some representatives elected and sent by NAMI, some elected and sent by a hypothetical national advocacy group for former RTC attendees, some elected and sent by a hypothetical national advocacy group for parents of former RTC attendees, and just barely less than half appointed and sent by the board that certifies pediatric psychiatrists.
Licensing procedures for a regular staffer should pretty much consist of a background check and a brief course outlining the dangers and hazards of improper restraint with requirements going up from there (anyone actually providing restraint should, of course, be trained in doing it right and in conflict de-escalation techniques). And you go up from there. Owners should have to be licensed as well. The board should set the licensing standards for the different categories of work.
Then they ought to be able to yank a particular staffer's license, with *no* statute of limitations on an offense (recognizing that it can take some time for someone to put themselves together enough to come forward), and get the real bad apples entirely out of the field, for life.
A staffer who has an affair with a student should never work in the field again, in any capacity.
A staffer who is present when a student dies of negligence and doesn't intervene should never work in the field again, in any capacity.
If someone's convicted of a felony or domestic violence misdemeanor, or is subject to a domestic violence restraining order that they had the opportunity to contest in court, he/she ought to have his/her license yanked.
Etc.
If a facility has it's license yanked, review of the licenses of every staffer employed there at the time of the license being pulled or for six months prior should be automatic.
Child welfare workers should have the power to report staffers to the licensing board, and to recommend their removal, and to testify at the hearing following that request, and should be shielded from legal liability for that to the same extent they would be if they were investigating a parent or testifying in family court.
You know, a licensing board with some teeth like that would probably be more effective than any other reform suggested so far.
Particularly if there was a federal law requiring all employees of facilities that accepted out of state students *or* that that accepted payment from an insurer incorporated outside that state (interstate commerce clause linkage to make sure the courts don't throw the law out as unconstitutional) be licensed by said national board.
The other interesting provision they could add to take care of offshore facilities like Tranquility Bay would be to give the state department the responsibility for determining whether a facility that takes American minors is an RTC within the meaning of the law and, if so, have it demonstrate that the staffers are all either licensed by the US board *or* licensed by an equivalent national board recognized by the State Dept.---and to state that if a facility doesn't comply, the State Dept. may periodically make welfare checks on the American minors and any minor who requests it is subject to immediate repatriation by the State Dept. at the parents' expense. Make State maintain a list of facilities compliant with the licensing provision and strongly advise parents to check on the status of their intended facility *before* enrolling their child.
Teeth.
You know, getting the bad apple employees, managers, and owners all the way out of the industry would probably be more effective than any other single reform. Some of the worst abuses seem to happen from the same bad apples bouncing from facility to facility and getting more and more rotten along the way.
And the provision letting child welfare workers go after the license of particular staffers would do more to give child welfare effective leverage for controlling these places than anything I've heard proposed.
Imagine if the social worker CHI3 talked to had been able to talk to the kids when parents yanked them and then talk freely to the licensing board about problem staffers *without* having to worry about losing her job or getting sued. Do you think the people running and working for the facility would start jumping when child welfare said frog? I do. Because each staffer the child welfare worker encountered would have the ultimate personal stake in cooperation. The managers and owners might well be able to fire you off *that* job---but child welfare could potentially get you "fired" out of the entire industry.
Child welfare in different states at different times has really screwed the pooch now and again, but I sure trust them more than I trust the programs. And who knows? Maybe the kids who really do need residential care would start being more likely to get *quality* care.
I know I've gone off on a long tangent here. Forgive me for thinking out loud.
Timoclea
In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
--Unknown
