Government
May 30, 2001
Judge Calls School's Services 'Inadequate'
LOS ANGELES - The senior boy's classroom at MacLaren School had the feel of any high school: rumpled kids, who looked like they'd rather be anywhere else, hunched over their desks reading and writing; bulletin boards full of prize papers; a frazzled teacher doing her best.
Yet the classroom housing 10th, 11th and 12th graders was occupied by as many adults as students. Among them were teacher's aides, volunteer foster grandparents and, in the back row, social workers who looked an awful lot like beefy prison guards.
The school offered a core curriculum (plus classes in anger management and drug awareness), diagnostic testing and a computer lab. Still, this was not your everyday school.
The atmosphere was sad. Most of the kids who attend school on the campus of MacLaren Children's Center in El Monte have survived abuse, abandonment or neglect. For the most part, the kids were removed from their families and homes for their safety and protection.
In addition to being emotionally vulnerable, the students often have serious mental health problems, physical handicaps or learning disabilities. Some have all three. Unfortunately, the kids who stay on the longest at the county's only children's shelter are here because other facilities don't want, or have room for, them. They are considered too hard to handle.
Many feel MacLaren and its little school have become the last stop for teen-agers before they are sent to juvenile hall, the California Youth Authority or a state mental hospital.
The law guarantees children an education commensurate with their abilities regardless of their emotional or physical handicaps. "We have today more kids with emotional disturbances," Larry Springer, the director of the Juvenile Court and Community Schools for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said of students at MacLaren School. "The kids come to MacLaren by order of the court and we service whomever comes."
Because of the transient nature of a shelter school, the MacLaren curriculum was designed based on 30 days of instruction. That goal has been ripped apart in recent years. "Youngsters stay at MacLaren longer than we would like," Springer said.
Yet for all the difficulties of running a year-round school where up to 75 percent of the students have special educational needs, Springer is proud that his school and its 11 teachers are accredited. Other faculty include a speech-language therapist, resource specialist, deaf/hard-of-hearing specialist, deaf/hard-of-hearing translator, adapted-physical-education specialist, two psychologists, behavior management assistants and instructional aides.
"The staff members we have are very dedicated and focused and they want to work with this population," he said.
Springer also is proud that eight students received their high school diplomas from MacLaren School last year and that one of them spoke at graduation. "When they get a diploma, where they might not have, it is a source of pride for all of us, particularly the teachers," he said.
Despite those signs of hope, many familiar with the school say it is failing the children it serves. Among them are:
• Los Angeles Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Terry Friedman, who has called the curriculum and services offered at the school "inadequate." Friedman recently singled out MacLaren School as perhaps the worst of the county-run Juvenile Court and Community Schools.
• Members of the county Commission on Children and Families, which provides oversight of MacLaren. They have zeroed in on high teacher turnover, which they describe as a serious problem.
• Public interest law firms, like Public Counsel and Mental Health Advocacy Services Inc. Among other things, they have questioned the quality of the diagnostic assessments offered to special-needs kids.
Springer, 50, has for the last six years headed the county office of education division that runs all the county's schools at detention facilities and MacLaren. He believes some of the criticism results from outsiders who don't understand how a shelter school operates.
"I've come to the conclusion that these critics want the best for the children, too - and they're just doing [the criticizing] from their sphere of influence," he said. "After much reflection, that's where I am with the folks that criticize."
Concerns about the adequacy of education at MacLaren School led the county to hire Frederick J. Weintraub, an outside investigator, to study whether students were receiving legally mandated educational and behavioral assessments. Weintraub concluded that, in some cases, they were not.
Public interest law firms that specialize in protecting children, including Public Counsel and Mental Health Advocacy Services, disagreed with the Weintraub Report - particularly its conclusion that MacLaren School and other facilities run by the county office of education were exempt from special education laws that require schools to provide a wide range of options for kids, including placing them at outside schools.
As a result, the policies of MacLaren School - especially those governing the education of special-needs students with emotional disturbances - are being overhauled by a county task force chaired by Friedman.
"Primarily the changes have been in the area of interagency coordination," Springer said of the talks so far.
Asked what he would like to do to make MacLaren School a better place, Springer, an educator for nearly three decades, paused before saying, "It's hard not to think of the plight of these kids. If I had to wish, I would wish for a wholesome home for each and every one of these kids - a home with a mother and dad and everything they need."
Cheryl Romo
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