A L E R T
EDUCATION OF YOUTH IN RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITIES
A Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) is a place where children and adolescents go to live an receive mental health treatment. There has been some confusion about the education and special education rights of children and adolescents living at RTFs and about what happens when they return to their home school districts.
The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania and the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania are interested in helping families make sure that their children in RTFs get the education services they need.
Keep in mind:
• Children who have not graduated from high school have a right to continue to receive a public education while living at an RTF.
• Children who need special education services have a right to those
services while living in an RTF, and have a right to receive the services
in the least restrictive environment appropriate to their needs.
• If it is right for the child, and no court has prohibited it, the school district where the RTF is located must allow a child living in the RTF to attend the school district’s public schools.
• Some RTFs have their own schools on their grounds. An RTF cannot require a child to attend its on-grounds school. If the child has an Individualized Education Program (IEP), the IEP team should decide where the child attends school.
• A parent has a right to continue to help develop his or her child’s IEP or Service Agreement and to make educational decisions while the child is in the RTF.
Please call the DRN Education Help-line at 1 (800) 692-7443 if your child is in an RTF and you need help getting him or her needed education or special education services while at the RTF, or if you are concerned about your child's educational placement when he or she returns home.
Premise Alert System
On April 7th of 2008, The Premise Alert System was presented to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by the Honorable Chris Ross, Representative from Chester County in a ceremony at the Rotunda in our state capitol building. The Premise Alert System is a safety program that supports individuals living with disabilities as well as Police Officers responding to calls at a specific address.
For more information: CLICK HERE
Adult Protective Services
Please communicate with your State Senator and Representative this week about the need to include start-up funds for Adult Protective Services in next year’s budget. We need to build a groundswell of support to be noticed in this busy budget season.
For more information: CLICK HERE
Letter from Senators and Representatives to Caucus Leadership
Adult Protective Services Coalition
Stretching Hearts and Hands across the Miles to Costa Rica
Several months ago Susan Tachau, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Foundation reached out to Vision for EQuality asking us to help sponsor the trip of a young Costa Rican special education teacher, Connie, to America. Vision was pleased to step up to the plate.
Connie arrived in March during Easter time, full of enthusiasm and anxious to learn more about services for people with disabilities and parent supports in the United States, the nature of our philosophy on independent living and our use of assistive technology. Connie spent almost two full weeks in Philadelphia and much of that time was with some of Vision’s staff. Thanks to Vision, Maureen Devaney, Ana and Emilio Pacheco and Sharon Harper-Young, she received a warm reception in the City of Brotherly Love and was able to learn a lot about people with disabilities in our fair City.
During her short visit here Connie was accompanied around Philadelphia by a number of Vision’s staff to places such as Temple, a charter school, and a Spanish church. She had dinner with the Pacheco’s and learned more about what life is like in America, especially for a child with a disability. She was escorted by the Pacheco’s to St Christopher’s Hospital where she was able to see the entire facility, meet with some of their staff, and watch a hearing screening as well as learn about other medical services for children with disabilities. The Pacheco’s generously offered a wheelchair their son no longer needed, and it was shipped to Costa Rica. Here at Vision she was introduced to a renowned leader in the field of “gentle teaching”.
Sharon Harper-Young stepped up to the plate and presented Connie with the opportunity to visit her son’s school, the First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy, where children with disabilities are fully included. There she was warmly received by the principal, Ms. Stacy Clarke and the students. During her visit the members of the school learned of the dire circumstances of many children with disabilities in Costa Rica, where Connie is one of only 5 special education teachers in all of the country. After hearing Connie’s story and with a little urging from Sharon, the principal and members of the school decided that day to adopt Connie’s class and to send help in the year ahead so they can have things like books and other school supplies.
Connie put in a full two weeks in Philadelphia, spending every waking hour immersed in learning all she could. She has returned to Costa Rica full of inspiration, richer for the experience, and with a desire to continue to lead the charge, bringing a message of hope to the families, children and teachers in her small country by sharing the wealth of information she found here in America and offering a vision of what they can work towards and do to effect change and the future of people with disabilities in Costa Rica.
Thanks to Vision for Equality, Maureen Devaney, Ana and Emilio Pacheco and Sharon Harper-Young, Susan Tachau and others who made Connie’s time in Philadelphia such a success.
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