"It was a very difficult decision for me," said Hale, a 40-year-old King County metro driver. "But I had no choice. No one in Washington state could find anything.


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For families in Washington, this is a common problem. During the 2020-21 academic year, Washington's school districts sent 80 students to out-of-state facilities, according to public records from the state office's superintendent of public instruction. That's nearly four times the number of children sent out of state in Washington during the 2016-17 school year, the data show, although the state agency says part of the increase in the figures This could be the result of better tracking in recent years.


School districts send students to out-of-state facilities if they do not have the resources to provide services to children with complex needs, usually as a result of disability or childhood trauma. But doing so can be costly. In total, the school districts spent about ً 13 million on these 80 students sent out of the state last year, according to state figures. And the actual amount of expenses can be even higher, because the state figures only show the expenses for which the districts are asked to pay.


A spreadsheet of these appointments, obtained by Investigate West, shows which districts often send students out of state, and where those locations are. Almost exclusively, these were schools west of the Cascades that paid to send students to facilities such as Utah, Kansas or Massachusetts.


Proponents of disability say they are concerned about how many students are being sent away from Washington. He argues that this highlights a growing crisis, which emphasizes the lack of empowerment for people with disabilities and the need to invest more in the special education of Washington legislators so that students can stay at school at home. Can


Stacey says, "This is a clear indication that we need to spend more time thinking about the solutions here, so that families are not in crisis, children are not in crisis, and we are not isolating them in the meantime." Are doing, "says Stacey. Dame, executive director of the Arch of Washington, a non-profit organization that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.


Meanwhile, families are left to reassure their children that they cannot see for months at a time. She tries to zoom in and out as much as she can with the heel level, but it's hard to tell how well she's doing on screen, she says.


"We miss him so much every day," says Hale. "You never know what's going on." As you can imagine, this is very stressful.


Raise questions

Susan Cass, a staff attorney with the nonprofit advocacy group Disability Rights Washington, recently learned about school districts that send students out of state. For her, it felt like "Deja Vu," she says. And not in a good way.


Just a few years ago, he discovered that the state Department of Children, Youth and Families has done the same thing - sending 80 foster children to out-of-state housing facilities.


"I have the same questions I asked in 2018 with Foster Care Systems," says Cass. "I don't know if the answers will be the same in this situation, but I certainly have the same questions as to what is the real reason and what is under it."


With foster care, what Kas and Disability Rights Washington found was disturbing. They discovered "uncomfortable" conditions at an Iowa facility where foster children were sent. Many of the residential treatment centers were owned by a non-profit company called Sequel, and reports from across the country contain detailed allegations of child abuse at Sequel-owned facilities. Foster Children and Disability Rights Washington sued Washington state in 2020 for placing Foster children in hotels, offices and out-of-state facilities. Washington - along with other states - decided in December 2020 to stop keeping foster children in secular facilities, with the ultimate goal of stopping sending children out of the state.


The facilities provided by the school districts for sending students in 2020-21, however, are not owned by Sequel. The state superintendent has a list of approved "non-governmental agencies" from which districts can choose. There are residential treatment facilities for children with some behavioral problems. Others are special schools for children with severe autism.


Andrea Cadlac, who is also a staff attorney with Disability Rights Washington, says she was "shocked" to learn of the growing trend and plans to look into it further. In particular, she is interested in demographics. She says students who are stopped or isolated in public schools are disproportionately colored, in foster care or homeless.


"Are these also the children who are most isolated?" Kadlec says. Both lawyers are concerned about the sheer number of out-of-state appointments and the rapidly rising trend.


"Our concern is that the numbers will continue to grow. And if it gets too big, it will be a problem that will be more difficult to solve," Cass said.


There are also questions about surveillance. Galena Gallo, the state's assistant superintendent of special education services, says that when a school district keeps a student out of the state, supervision falls on that school district. District officials usually visit these facilities to make sure they are complying with Washington state requirements, and schools outside the state are required to report disciplinary data.


"The districts have to be involved," says Gallo. "These students are their responsibility."


But the Arch of Washington Dam says the reality is not so simple. Districts may find it difficult to obtain data on disciplinary action against treatment centers students, and the numbers are not always available to the public, as they are to public schools.


"It's annoying, because it can be very invisible, out of mind," says Dame.


Galloway, who is awaiting a hearing from the U.S. Senate to join the U.S. Department of Education as Assistant Secretary of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services in President Biden's administration, says districts should provide students with such an arrangement. They should not be found guilty of spending money on keeping it which is up to their standards. Needs For some students with sensory challenges, there may be only a few places in the country that meet their needs. But there are other reasons to look critically at schools that send students out of the state, Gallo says.


"The concern is why these decisions are being made. Are they tailored to the needs of the student? Or are they being made in part because of district staff or capacity challenges?" Says Gallo.


Finding a solution at home

A parent in Toby, North Shore School District, who asked for anonymity to protect her daughter's privacy, said sending her daughter "saved her life." Toby says he suffered major trauma as a child, and as a teenager he suffered severe disruptions, both at school and at home.


Toby feared that he was in danger of harming himself and others. She went to Ryther, a Seattle clinic, but she was still struggling. Eventually, the school district, under the advice of an independent psychiatrist, recommended that he be sent to a medical school in southern Utah. And there, Toby says, his daughter is thriving. He is on his way to graduate, and more importantly, his mental health has improved.


Toby says, "After all, she's the one who believes and sees that she has self-worth, and that the things that have happened to her, the trauma that she has experienced, It's not a reflection. "


For Toby, this is proof that the right kind of professional help can make a huge difference. She wants it to be available at home.


Julie Trembeth Newberger, director of secondary special education, says she served parts of the North Shore School District, King and Snowhomesh counties, creating a unique needs program to accommodate all students in her school district.


"Because we strongly believe that the least restrictive environment matters. We want students to be part of the district," she says.


But there were still problems with lack of resources and staff members being injured by students. Three years ago, North Shore shut down the program. She says these students need 24-hour treatment, which the school district could not provide on its own and is difficult to find in the state.


Last academic year, North Shore sent six students out of state, at an average cost of $ 238,473 per student. For the competition, just four years ago, North Shore excluded only one student from the state, state figures show, and it cost less than $ 75,000.


The main issues that schools are sending students to are the ones that have plagued the state for years, lawyers and education officials say: a lack of investment in special education, and people with disabilities or behavior. Lack of community space for health issues.


Gallo says the state office of the superintendent of public instruction is also concerned, and the state agency has raised concerns about the use of non-governmental agencies in the state legislature in 2018.


"Our concern that we expressed at the time, and that we have, is that there are no sources of funding to provide these special services to the districts," said Gallo. Help build capacity. "


When asked by InvestigateGate West why most West Washington districts send children out of state, Gallo said she "didn't know" about the practice but would investigate further. She says OSPI wants districts to be able to have trained staff "so that students do not move to places where they need rigorous services outside the district." This will require more funds for special education.


So far, she says, she has not seen the legislature address the issue directly. But there are bills to increase the training of school staff, psychologists, counselors, nurses and teachers. Gallo says he can help reduce the need for NGOs.


Arezzo Furo, president and CEO of the Washington Autism Alliance, agrees that more support for public schools will be the first step in reducing out-of-state placements. Often, she says, the seriousness of the situation before the children are sent out of the state can have lasting effects.


"These are the years of trauma that students face before they are put in the right place that stays with them and scarring them for many years," said Four. "The focus should be on timely access to effective educational programs and effective treatment programs."


Foro says he knows many other parents, such as Toby, and with children like Hale, who are either hospitalized, unable to find a safe place, or have been sent out of state. She adds that there are no medical boarding schools in Washington that focus more on education than residential treatment centers.


"And so we have this rage of different systems that don't work well together," says Foro. "It doesn't surprise me that families have to make this really difficult decision to keep students out of the state."


Northbridge School District's Newberger speculates that Washington as a whole lacks residential treatment options because children in the state may refuse residential treatment after the age of 13, leading to a similar facility in Washington. Is less likely to build. The law aims to give children more freedom in their care. State legislators changed that in 2019 to give parents more power to treat outpatients for their children. In states with high residential behavioral health facilities, however, like Utah, the consent age is 18 years.


In its proposed budget for this legislative session, Gov. Jay Inslee has called for funding that will increase the state's behavioral health care capacity. One proposal would include a bed for treatment and out-of-home services for young people with significant behavioral problems. Another proposal would include a short-term housing crisis stabilization program for young people with severe behavioral health problems.


Dym, formerly Inslee's academic ombudsman, supports additional investment in behavioral health options. She doesn't think any laws need to be changed to better serve students in Washington. If it costs a student منتقل 300,000 to move to Kansas, she asks, what can that money be used for?


"We have the capacity and capability to take care of our children in our state," Dame said, and we have made a firm commitment not to do so. Because it is not like the legislature and the agencies are not aware of this situation.


InvestigateWest is an independent news non-profit organization dedicated to investigative journalism in the Pacific Northwest. To support this type of in-depth reporting, visit invw.org/donate.