Troubled Modesto teen made shooting threat at school. What are options for treatment?
A Modesto woman who is trying to get her son into a residential program in Utah believes that is the only way to help him. But there are other options before resorting to that kind of treatment, authorities said.
Here is the difference between what Modesto City Schools is offering at this point and what the mother wants:
The woman, whom The Bee is not identifying to keep her son’s information confidential, asked the school board to help her get her 14-year-old into Benchmark Behavioral Health Systems in Utah through his individualized education plan (IEP). An IEP is a legal document for special education students that outlines their specific needs. It is developed by a team that includes teachers, administrators, school psychologists and the student’s parents.
The boy, a student at La Loma Junior High, has had increasingly violent outbursts at home and has threatened to get a gun and shoot classmates, according to his mother.
Craig Scholnick, chief executive officer and managing director of Benchmark Behavioral Health Systems, said most of the California youth at Benchmark in Utah are placed through agreements with their school districts. The adolescent males, ages 13 to 17, are on IEPs and are placed with Benchmark usually after the school district determines the student’s education needs can’t be addressed in the public school system, the CEO said in an email.
Young people are treated at the residential facility for conduct disorder, sexual misconduct issues, Asperger’s syndrome, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, personality disorders and substance abuse issues.
The Benchmark center is designed to provide a positive learning environment, different education strategies and quality instruction to help students become lifelong learners, Scholnick said in the email.
But there are other treatment options including what Modesto City Schools is providing the boy, called wraparound services.
They are designed to follow a strengths-based, needs-driven approach, according to the California Department of Education.
Those services include some or all of the following, according to Modesto City Schools:
▪ A “parent partner” who provides direct support to the parent and is available to answer questions, provide clarification as needed and help with connecting the family with community resources.
▪ Structured, confidential therapeutic sessions held with an assigned clinician, in the client’s home or an agreed upon location. The clinician drafts a treatment plan based on the needs arising from the referral, history and/or parent concern.
▪ Support counselors, who provide interventions guided by the treatment plan created by the assigned clinician. This can include therapeutic games, arts and crafts to help the student learn better coping and anger management skills.
▪ Weekly meetings involving the family, a structured collaboration aimed at making progress to the goals set forth in the treatment plan.
▪ A facilitator who ensures all members of the wrap team are in sync and working with the most up-to-date information and data related to the treatment plan.
▪ 24/7 crisis support. Caregivers and clients have access to an on-call team that will be dispatched to the home or community as needed.
MCS pays roughly $48,000 per year/per student for these supports, the district said in an email statement. The costs for a program like Benchmark are roughly three times as much.
District officials stress that decisions about a student’s services are never based on money but rather determining the least restrictive environment for a student based on the unique needs of the child. An IEP team makes decisions based on factors including information provided by the parent(s), any outside providers and the information gathered by the district.
Modesto City Schools does have students in residential programs, and that could be an option after other treatments are explored and assessments are completed.
The mother said the intake process for wraparound services started Monday but said she will continue to fight for him to receive residential treatment.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 8:48 AM.
