In hearings that could have far-reaching implications for D.C.’s troubled special education system, a congressional committee will hear testimony today on the marketing practices of private residential schools and boot camps.
The House Education and Labor Committee has heard from families of children who died or allegedly suffered abuse in camps, ranches and clinics around the country. Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., said in a statement he wants “a better overall understanding ofthe industry in which these types of abuses have been allowed, in many cases, to continue almost unchecked.”
Miller is preparing legislation that would subject children’s residential treatment programs to tighter regulation. As reported by The Examiner, thousands of D.C. children have been sent to such programs for decades at vast public expense. Critics of the $210 million system say the children have been shipped out with little regard for their safety and welfare.
Miller said the industry has exploded since the 1990s with the craze for private boot camps, ranches and clinics that claim to offer last chances to desperate parents. But he says owners have taken advantage of lax regulation to exploit children.
State Superintendent Deborah Gist has said she wants an investigation of how D.C. children wound up in clinics around the country, but her office has refused a Freedom of Information Act request for correspondence between residential programs and school officials. Miller is encountering opposition from the clinics and camps, led by their trade association, the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs. NATSAP Executive Director Jan Moss told Miller last fall that national regulation wasn’t necessary and that her group was happy to work with the states to patch legal loopholes.
“The need to protect our children and provide for their well-being is not a topic for debate,” she said at the time. “The question is how we can work together to safeguard and help those who need specialized schools and programs.”
