Sometimes something sneaks up on you and changes how you view things. Such is the case with 42. No, I’m not talking about President #42. I’m talking about the number. I didn’t know it was following me over the years until recently.
Questions
Delaware Medicaid Cuts For Day Treatment Centers Will Make Schools A “One Size Fits All” Band-Aid
Day Treatment Centers, MedicaidThe root of the State of Delaware cutting day treatment centers that have state contracts lies with Medicaid. The federal government issued guidance in 2011 urging states to look at their state Medicaid plans. As a result of Delaware’s plan, it has been determined that day treatment centers can no longer be reimbursed for education through Medicaid as of June 30th, 2016. The news coming out about the state closing these centers has not been officially released yet but something is supposed to come out from the Division of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families this evening.
What this means is day centers can no longer provide any education services for children under the age of 21. They can only provide direct treatment or counseling. Many students that currently attend these centers receive both. It will force these centers to essentially shut down. So far, it has been confirmed that the two most impacted day centers will be the Terry Center in New Castle and Seaford House in Sussex County. But there are others, and this will impact a lot of children.
So where will these children go? Many parents of these students fear they will be placed in their district Intensive Learning Centers (ILC). I have found these ILCs to be more like a boot camp than a place where students with disabilities or troubled youth can get the true help they need. The ILCs tend to treat all problems as behavior, but most severe disabilities are neurologically based.
All of this was reported by the State of Delaware through the regulatory process, but the language used in the writing is somewhat vague and never once mentions the words “day treatment center” which is the commonly used terminology for these places. This is from Regulation 763 which was finalized on February 1st, 2016:
Reimbursement for services not otherwise covered under the State Plan is determined by the Medicaid agency through review of a rate setting committee. Non-institutional services are paid on a fee-for-service basis. Institutional services are per diem rates based on reasonable costs. These services include:
School based health service providers include Delaware school districts and charter schools and may provide the following Medicaid services per Attachment 3.1-A, Page 2 Addendum:
As I feared, they are taking out services that are necessary for students with disabilities and attempting to replace those with either in-home services or school-based services. I’m sorry, but even with the strides some schools have made with special education, these students are not meant to be in an inclusive setting at times based on their disabilities. And ILCs are a prison for these kids. They are psychological torture. This is very bad. Delaware will say they went through all the proper channels, but if the Regulation was finalized in February, why are parents just finding out about this now? Why didn’t they send something to parents that have their child in the state Medicaid program to let them know of these HUGE changes? Writing about regulations with all their confusing jargon and legalese is not the same thing as making sure that information gets disseminated to citizens in a clear and coherent way. This is how both state and federal government get away with things.
But who is going to pay for these increased services in our schools? We don’t have enough money now to properly service public education. Will this mean more federal grants tied to the Every Student Succeeds Act? Or will we start to see the slow invasion of non-education entities coming into our schools? Is this just Delaware or will other states go through this process? These are burning questions I mean to find the answers to.
Unless the legislators don’t check their state email, they should all know about this by now. I emailed every one of them, along with Governor Markell, Attorney General Matt Denn, DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf, Secretary of Education Dr. Steven Godowsky and several others about this today. But this information regarding the regulation and the Medicaid situation I just found out about in the past few hours. In reviewing the FY2017 Budget Proposal by the DSCYF to the Joint Finance Committee this year, this plan wasn’t clearly laid out to the General Assembly. But the timing on this, when these day treatment centers would close, would be after the General Election even though Medicaid stopped reimbursing for these services as of 6/30/16. How many people knew about this? Did John Carney?
I have wondered over the past two years, as I fell deeper into the corporate education reform rabbit hole, how students with disabilities, especially those with the most severe, could ever survive in the upcoming personalized learning/competency-based education world. The answer is becoming very clear: they can’t. I believe the intent is to push them out of public education. To force parents into homeschooling their children with moderate to severe disabilities. The problem becomes the affordability of this. That would mean one parent can’t work a normal 9-5 job. It means less revenue for the state. But these families will still be expected to pay property taxes to pay for our schools. How is that just in any way? I have always spoken out against voucher programs. But if our state wants to force the hand of families of disabled children, perhaps it is time a new conversation started.
Judge Sends A Dangerous Message In Carr Ruling For Amy’s Murder & The District’s Role In The Events
Amy Joyner-Francis, Trinity CarrWhile a judge’s ruling in how Amy Joyner-Francis’ murderer will be tried sparks controversy, the role the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District may have played has been silent and ignored.
According to The News Journal last Friday, Delaware Family Court Judge Robert Coonin made a ruling in how Trinity Carr will be tried in the murder of Amy Joyner-Francis, the high school student who died after an assault at Howard High School of Technology. Carr will be tried as a juvenile, not an adult. In most likelihood, the maximum sentence Carr would receive, if found guilty, would be “community supervision and treatment until age 19” as per the News Journal article written by Jessica Massulli Reyes.
Judge Coonin also ruled Amy’s fingernails were more likely ripped out trying to fend the attack as the video showed her grabbing Carr as her murderer was being pulled away from her. Coonin said there was insufficient evidence to suggest Carr lacked remorse because she did not know she had killed Amy after the fight.
None of this will likely give Amy’s family any feeling of justice. I am very uncomfortable with Carr essentially walking the streets. Her actions, and I don’t care what anyone says about a pre-existing condition that is suspect at best, led to the death of a sweet teenager. Carr’s Sunday School activity doesn’t erase her actions that day. No, I don’t think Carr should get the death penalty, but this sends a bad message to the youth of Delaware. A very dangerous and bad message.
The heart of the ruling deals with Carr’s age. She is sixteen years old. Technically, she is a minor. The Delaware Attorney General’s Office had extreme issues with the planning that went on before the assault on Amy. The length of the assault, the viciousness of it, and the physical results of the attack were foremost in their mind in issuing charges. Revealed at Carr’s first hearing on the matter was the unrevealed pulling out of Amy’s fingernails. Coonin ruled they were a result of Amy trying to protect herself based on video footage. While this could be true, it also points out a desperation on Amy’s part to save herself. Which swings back around to the viciousness of the attack.
We have heard the tales of “bloodlust” in people. Where they go beyond the point of reason and brutal savagery takes over. I have to believe that most people make a conscious choice to cross that line in their mind. What Carr did is not a normal choice unless she made certain decisions during the timeline of events. This was planned in advance, the day before. But there are situations where she may not have been able to make that final choice where rage took over. Coonin’s ruling gives teenagers a very false idea that they could get away with something like this. While it is my fervent hope it would not, the minds of teenagers are very different than those of an adult. I highly doubt this would come out even if it were the case, but what if Carr has a disability? What if she was on medication that had an adverse affect on the neurology of her brain? I have no idea if this is the case or not, I am merely questioning a possibility. While this would not justify her final actions in my mind because of the premeditation behind it, this could potentially lead to important questions that need to be addressed.
How aware was the school of the feud between Carr and Amy? Should they have been aware? As part of our bullying laws in Delaware, social media is addressed in those laws. But how much monitoring of that social media takes place? No one can see everything at once. That would be impossible. But one thing I haven’t ever heard is the possibility of having a school narc to monitor things like this, especially in schools where there are higher incidents of fights and inappropriate touching. Someone who could keep abreast of things like this. Hearing the buzz so to speak and acting on it. There have been narc’s for drugs in schools. Why not bullying or threats that result in vicious fights or, as an extreme, a student’s death.
What is the school’s role in this tragedy? I’ve reported before that many teachers at Howard High School of Technology were involved in professional development that morning. While not completely verified, the role of hall monitors has been very spotty at this school according to several sources wishing to remain anonymous. Yes, testimony has come out that a teacher did get to the bathroom and heard Amy’s final words. But how much time elapsed between the point when a bunch of students were running into a bathroom, Carr confronted Amy, pulled her by the hair into a bathroom stall, Amy resisted, and Carr was able to punch and kick Amy over twenty times? This is something the school would know. But they aren’t talking. Some of that could be because this is a criminal investigation and they simply can’t talk about it. But I have to believe that if teachers were present, and not in professional development at 8 or 8:30 in the morning, this tragedy could have been averted. I don’t blame the teachers for this, I blame the administration. While the true fault lies with Carr, the school’s actions, while intentional or not, did lead to Amy’s death. And this is the thing no one else is talking about publicly. If this were outside of school, this wouldn’t even be an issue. But this happened inside a school building, filled with adults.
While I tend to doubt the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District would ever publicly address this aspect to Amy’s death, I sincerely hope this evolves into discussions with their board and district staff. It may have already happened. There is a public task force on school safety happening in Delaware. I hope changes occur that would allow for something like this to never happen again, not only in their schools, but all Delaware schools. We owe it to Amy, and all those who have been victim to any kind of vicious assault or murder, to try. If anything like this could be in any way prevented by the local school authority, we need to look at all scheduling aspects, how much security we may or may not need in our schools, and some type of apparatus to watch student’s actions to see if a crisis could happen. This is something our schools should have always been doing. It should not take the death of Amy to finally make our students the safest they can possibly be.
The School Safety Committee is meeting tonight at the Friends of Woodlawn Library, 2020 W. 9th St., in Wilmington, Delaware, at 6pm. While I am unable to make it, and I know this is late notice, but I would try to attend if you can. Don’t be afraid to give public comment. Someone’s life could very well depend on it.
Why?
QuestionsAfter 19 months and a couple of days of posting an article on this blog every single day, I broke that streak yesterday. It was intentional. First off, it got me out of that “have to post something every day” mindset. Second, what else is there to say? I’m not saying this to be obtuse, but there are several reasons why I am now limited in what I can do or say.
Ask Dr. Godowsky: Submit Your Questions Here
Delaware Senate, Dr. Steven GodowskyThe Delaware Senate will be having a meeting on October 28th to consider the nomination of Dr. Steven Godowsky for the role of Secretary of Education in Delaware. Since October 1st, the role is in an interim capacity. What questions do you think the Delaware Senate should ask Dr. Godowsky when they meet with him? Now is the time for the Senate to really dig in and find out not only what he plans to do, but what he won’t do. We need to find out if Dr. Godowsky is simply there to fulfill Governor Markell’s agenda until the end of his gubernatorial term or if he is truly there for change. Please place your questions for Dr. Godowsky in the comments section and I will make sure this information gets to the Delaware Senate. We need Dr. Godowsky to be his own man and not a puppet for the Delaware DOE, the Delaware State Board of Education, and Governor Markell.
Save The Date: Tomorrow, Friday 2/27, 1:00PM, WDEL, 1150AM, Rick Jensen, Me, Parent Opt Out Round Two
Parental Opt-Out of Standardized TestingRick Jensen with WDEL/1150AM has graciously invited me back to his radio show tomorrow to discuss parent opt out in Delaware. We will be discussing more of the nitty-gritty on what parents can do and the process on how to go about doing it. I will certainly put a podcast up if it becomes available. If you have any questions you want answered, I will do my best to find the answers between now and then.
The phone number for WDEL is 302-478-9335. If State Rep. Jaques wants to call to explain his public comment about the Parent Opt Out Bill never passing, and let listeners know why he is against this bill, I would gladly welcome it.
Family Foundations Academy Board Meeting Tonight @KilroysDelaware @ed_in_de @Avi_WA @TNJ_malbright #netde #eduDE #edchat #Delaware
Family Foundations AcademyNow that will be one interesting meeting. It started a minute ago. I’m not there. I don’t think they would want me there. But I do hope lots and lots of parents show up and ask A LOT of questions! Deep, probing questions. I welcome any comments or emails about what happened at this board meeting.
Watching The Wheels by John Lennon
BloggingI remember a ten-year old me crying his eyes out when he heard John Lennon was shot and killed. I was lying in my bed, listening to American Top 40 with Casey Kasem. I loved the Beatles since the time I learned what music was. I always hoped for a reunion. With one bullet, I knew that would never happen.
My son is now ten. Life is a cycle, and the wheels keep turning. Quite a few people ask why I blog, for free, when I could be doing so many other things. I can’t explain it, no matter how hard I try. It just feels like something I need to do right now. Every thing I have done with this blog has led me down the path one step further. I won’t stop until I find out the answers to the questions that plague my mind. The further I go, new questions are asked. I would rather journey through life having asked the questions than just blindly accepting things the way they are.
The Season Of Myths 