Gathering Places
Gathering Places
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS are spent every year on "special needs" children for programs to identify and assist those students who need help because they are having difficulty adjusting or performing successfully in school. The current process used by the Department of Education, however, is misguided. The state could save millions of dollars by rethinking the process for identifying the youths to be certified as special education or students. ‘Special ed’ label may
mask drug abuseI have worked for 20 years with young people who have special needs, most recently at the Bobby Benson Center, which provides treatment for adolescents with substance dependencies and mental-health problems. My work has ranged from those with emotional disorders to incarcerated youth to those abusing substance. In the last three years I have worked as a substance-abuse specialist with public schools.
Younger students (elementary-age children) may reflect emotional or learning disabilities that could be related to mental-health issues or their home environment. With older students (those at the intermediate or secondary school level), the initial question should be whether they are using alcohol, marijuana or other mood-altering drugs. Once this is ruled out, then it becomes reasonable to look deeper.
The age of onset for youth experimenting and developing a pattern of substance use is 12 to 13 years old. Oahu's intermediate and high schools are teeming with youths who have found the entertainment that substances can bring. Young people become involved with drugs or alcohol to feel good, relieve stress or maybe just to feel part of their peer group.
However, substance use causes problems for which students are referred to specialists. It causes chronic tru- ancies, refusal to follow rules, refusal or inability to complete assignments, harassment of other students, belligerence, depression, lack of motivation and aggression towards others.
How does the Department of Education miss the boat with these kids? They take students having learning or behavioral problems and are responding to requests for special education certification without a screening for substance abuse. This is backwards.
Why would we certify these children as needing state-funded special assistance without looking at whether they are impaired by substances? With the removal of the drugs, many behavioral problems clear up on their own. This is such a simple solution.
Our children need to be drug-free to ensure that they have the best possible chance of learning how to learn. Not an easy task, but an intelligent process could be installed by inserting an assessment of mandatory substance abuse into to all requests for services at the intermediate and secondary level.
I know our schools don't want to take on one more category of disorders to solve, but it's too late for this complaint. It is vital that our schools take a proactive approach to what's really the primary problem for many of our kids. It would go a long way to stopping this burgeoning population of "special ed kids" and would put a tourniquet on the financial hemorrhage that is draining the state's coffers.
Marcy Brown is director of Outpatient Services
for the Bobby Benson Center.