LITTLE ROCK — A week after Ron Angel took over the Youth Services Division, the Education Department hit him with a scathing rebuke of the special-education program at the state's largest youth lockup.
Angel quickly learned that was just one of many obstacles to educating the 330 or so delinquent youths in state custody on any given day.
For one, each of the six state juvenile correction or treatment centers in Arkansas had its own curriculum and books, which created problems when youths shuffled between facilities.
Facilities also have had trouble getting records from youths' school districts back home. And students have struggled to earn the necessary credits to graduate.When they did, Youth Services could not issue a diploma.
The division needed to work with the Education Department to resolve the issues, but the two agencies had a rocky relationship.
"The education system, in my opinion, was in very bad shape," Angel said recently.
Now - two years later - Angel and the Education Department are working together to build Youth Services' first "education system," created by Act 972 of 2009.
"I feel very encouraged,"said Marcia Harding, the Education Department's associate director of special education. "I think we're on the right track."
Beginning this week, teams of Education Department officials will visit and assess the education programs at all six facilities - most for the first time. The goal is to have the new system implemented by August 2010.
Youth Services, which spends about $3 million a year on education, also plans to break ground for new classrooms and education buildings at four of the facilities by year's end.
Despite the plans, some remain skeptical that Youth Services can provide the money and resources necessary to comply with new guidelines.
"It's way too early to make a judgment," said Jerry Walsh, executive director of South Arkansas Youth Services, a private contractor running facilities for the state. "I'm skeptical of any state agency. They tend to hire a lot of people.
"They'll hire 10 people to administer $1."
EDUCATION KEY TO SUCCESS
This year, Rep. Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia, went into the legislative session with a preconceived notion about Youth Services - that without significant improvement, some facilities would serve "as a training ground forour prison system."
Like many legislators, Roebuck was most familiar with the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, commonly called "Alexander" because it was once named Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility.
"I've been appalled when I talked to people who worked in the system and visited the unit at Alexander [because] the education system did not appear to be what our children - and they are children- [needed]," Roebuck said recently.
In 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice found shortcomings with the facility's education, special-education and other programs. Youth Services signed a court agreement promising to rectify the problems.
After several meetings and with the backing of other legislators, Roebuck filed a bill to create the education system in March, and it became law a month later.
The change in the law did not make Youth Services its own "school district" because it does not have its own tax base, among other reasons, said Harding with the Education Department.
Instead, the change created a unified school system within Youth Services with a set curriculum and books for the former Alexander campus as well as the residential facilities in Dermott, Colt, Harrisburg, Mansfield and Lewisville.
The law requires the Education Department to monitor the educational programs at all facilities, something it had not done before.
Angel was thrilled.
"I don't want these kids coming through our program and us not giving them every opportunity to be successful," Angel said, noting Youth Services' mission is to rehabilitate - not punish - the children in its care.
CHANGES AND CONCERNS
Angel has hired longtime educators to run the new system out of Youth Services' office in Little Rock.
For Harding, those new hires have helped ease tension between the two agencies because educators were talking with other educators rather than clinical staff.
Those educators began handling all requests for records from school districts, which sometimes caused problems when youths were transferred between facilities, said Mary Steele, Youth Services' special education director. The records are now in a database that all facilities have access to.
All the facilities will get the same textbooks and will follow the same curriculum, developed by the Education Department.
Cyndi Connell, Youth Services' curriculum assessment coordinator, said the curriculum will mirror that of public schools as much as possible.
Connell said Youth Services will also try to offer some electives and advanced classes through distance learning or summer programs.
But Walsh and fellow contractor Bonnie Smith, executive director of Consolidated Youth Services in Jonesboro, are concerned that Youth Services will spend money hiring employees for the main office and not fully fund the changes the facilities would have to make in order to comply with the new rules.
"The focus seems to be on replicating a public school with all the course requirements at each facility," Smith said Friday.
With just 28 youths at the Colt Juvenile Treatment Center and 36 at the Harrisburg Juvenile Treatment Center, Smith doesn't think providing additional courses such as art or foreign language is financially feasible.
"That's why schools are having to consolidate," she said, adding that the youths in state custody also have mental health, behavioral and substance-abuse issues that have to be handled along with education.
Smith said most youths stay in her facilities for only six or eight months. They could take elective or advanced courses when they return to public school.
Still, contractors interviewed said creating an education system is a positive step that needed to be taken. All facilities will finally be on the same schedule and offer the same classes, so if a youth transfers from the facility in Dermott to the one in Colt with two weeks left in the semester, he won't be lost or behind.
The credit for classes youths take while in lockup will also transfer more easily back to public schools. Most importantly for some, Youth Services can finally issue diplomas to students who earn them.
Youth Services' Steele said the agency just received the diplomas last week.
"I'm so excited," Steele said as she held up a blank leatherbound diploma.
But there are concerns about that, too.
Dana McClain, a senior attorney with the Little Rock based Disability Rights Center, doesn't want Youth Services giving diplomas to youths who haven't had the same education as students in public schools.
"I've seen progress" McClain said. "It's just not enough."
Front Section, Pages 1, 2 on 09/21/2009