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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1989-04-24-HSC-min.pdf Minutes Human Services Committee 4/24/89 l Present From Human Services Committee Bob Cushman, Co-Chairman; Dick Dougherty; Seymour Mandel ; Harvey Lowell ; Sheila Martin; Ann Irving; from School Department Paul Lombard, Administrator, Pupil Services - Special Needs ; Rachel Rosenblum, Social Worker, Core Evaluation Team; Debra Packard, "Project Mainstream" ; from LABS Program Robert Renna, Director ; from Lexington Citizens with Special Needs Marion Shepp and Martha Zeigler ; Bill Blout, RePlace ; and Steve Baran, Human Services Coordinator 1 The Minutes of the meeting of 4/24 were accepted 2 Steve reported that he was investigating needs items for the Committee while the Town' s department heads concerned with health and human services were looking into child care needs among Town employees A pre- bidding conference was being undertaken to investigate vendors for the Senior Health Monitor Program The need for a liaison to the Enablement Committee from the Human Services Committee was mentioned Rick Safford was acting as liaison between the Lexington Committee with Special Needs and the Enablement Committee C1 3 On the subject of special needs recreation Paul Lombard provided statistics (see attached) on special needs children by age and Chapter 766 prototype as well as a narrative on the subject of special education (dated 1 /6/89) He said there was a need for programs for children between the ages of 3 to 15 The Collaborative was looking after the recreational needs of those children between the ages of 15 and 22 Although special needs recreational programs have existed in other towns for many years, programs in Lexington date back only 3 or 4 years The LABS program has initiated special needs activities while the Lexington Recreation Department has not seen this as an issue 90% of special needs kids in Lexington are eligible and must participate Lexington could have a good Special Olympics program like Belmont and Arlington Special Olympics were begun last year in Lexington with poor attendance Many Lexington kids participate in Special Olympics in (� other towns Minutes, Human Services Committee, 4/24/89 Page 2 n Rachel Rosenblum stressed the importance of special needs students participating in the mainstream The bulk of special needs children are capable of participating in the mainstream Adolescent special needs kids might wish to form social subgroups of their own, but this was the exception and normal for adolescents to do The emphasis should be on access to existing programs with funding needed to support integration This would permit more individual attention to be given Staffing is also needed to provide consultation on what special needs is all about As for young adults, there were no other facilities The lack of social clubs forced young people of this age to look outside of Lexington for recreation Debra Packard noted that there are many special needs kids who are not considered as such In some cases, parents of special needs kids have created special programs for kids who could be in the mainstream Segregation has the effect of creating programs which only meet the needs of the most severely disabled Hayden has been receptive when offered staff to assist special needs kids to take advantage of programs or to provide consultation to Hayden staff (e g , getting kids out of braces ) Bob Renna also stressed the need for services for younger students as well as for young adults leaving the school system The young adults tend to be isolated with their needs unmet by the Recreation Department which has allocated only $4, 000 for the 15 to 22 year old group ( to be raised to $6, 000) Special needs young adults often end up living in other communities due to the lack of housing in Lexington Howard Cohen at Boston University is conducting a comparative study of school age children and special needs young adults in the towns of Concord, Belmont, Woburn, Arlington, Lexington and Burlington to determine what towns are doing around special programming and mainstreaming Bob plans to present the findings of the study to the Recreation Department Bob referred to a long relationship between the LABS program and Hayden Recreation Center The new ( Executive Director has been more receptive on Minutes, Human Services Committee, 4/24/89 Page 3 programming, but Bob said he really wanted an integrated program As for the Little League, the 1989 rule book still prohibits special needs kids from participating Anyone with a disability is forbidden to participate A number of special needs kids, however, do get into the Little League because the coaches are inititally unaware of their special needs Transportation is yet another need In other towns much more money is spent for both personnel and transportation Bob felt that all kids needed a choice with some preferring to be in separate programs for social purposes while being integrated in sports programs He, too, commented on the few kids in Special Olympics; only nine this year Finally, Bob pointed out that 504 regulations stipulated that all persons with disabilities had a right to reasonable accomodation He noted that many 1 of the students were versed in the law and knew what their rights were Harvey Lowell commented as a parent of a special needs son that the only sports program available to his son was karate The ages of the children in this program ranged from 5 to 15 (not age-appropriate) , and there were 12 to 13 in the class This was an example of the lack of options within Lexington for special needs children The collaborative program in which the Recreation Department participated was really forcing kids to go outside of Lexington Marion Shepp and Martha Zeigler stressed the importance of programs for the 22+ group There was a need for a social club in Lexington Harvey advised an affiliation of the Special Needs Housing Committee with the Human Services Committee Seymour asked what financial resources were available for special needs programs including user fees, parent contributions, service organizations such as the Shriners, large corporations, volunteer involvement for ( the over 22 group and respite money from the Mass Minutes, Human Services Committee, 4/24/89 Page 4 Department of Mental Retardation Seymour felt that it was most important before approaching any potential funding sources that there be a public mandate Possible next steps review forthcoming special needs survey; discuss with Recreation Department; discuss with Hayden Recreation 4 Dick Dougherty reported on his meeting with Bill Blout to discuss questions raised by Steve Baran in his memorandum concerning an additional appropriation for RePlace to conduct a counseling program in the high school Dick saw the possibility of reordering allocations with RePlace to create greater flexibility for services provided He recommended, in view of one social worker and one guidance counselor being cut, that the guidance counselor position be reinstated and the responsibility in the future carried by RePlace with funding half from the RePlace budget and half supplemented by the Town As to the question of elimination of the drop-in center, the possibility was envisaged of moving that program into the schools and consolidating it with the peer counseling program The peer counselors would run the drop in-center Estimating the impact of earlier intervention by virtue of having a school -based counseling program more accessible to students would be hard to do Numbers of interviews would be broken out separately in future statistics There was a deficit, and it was not expected that fundraising efforts would cover the deficit or that RePlace could, through its fundraising, contribute to the expense of a program in the school Actually, RePlace' s costs would be increased by such a program A contribution from the Public Trust was not seen as feasible In any event, the time required to investigate such a possibility would be lengthy ( Dick mentioned further that 40% of the RePlace staffing Minutes, Human Services Committee, 4/24/89 Page 5 n would have to be replaced shortly due to personnel leaving Next year' s budget would require a cut in FTEs' with the outreach counselor allocation being reduced to 0 5 FTEs' thereby affecting outreach both in the school and in the community The present outreach worker has been full time at $ 18, 000 Dick noted that Lee Feeney was asking the Human Services Committee to recommend to Town Meeting that there be an increased appropriation to RePlace while Bob reported that Renee was opposed out of a concern that the Committee was reacting to inappropriate constraints As to next steps, Dick saw the possibility that the 0 5 FTE outreach position could be paid for out of the existing appropriation Assignment of an intern to the school program was also a possibility Harvey recommended taking no action at this time since the Committee was not prepared to make a recommendation, particularly in view of the need for substance abuse counseling being added to consideration of the need for social service counseling The (- ) Committee should study the matter further and more fully respond to the questions that have been raised Certainly, it did not seem to make sense to cut services when there was a real drug problem Bob said there was a need to make a statement that between now and September the Committee would need to ascertain how much money was needed, and this was agreed to by the Committee Bill Blout said that RePlace had proposed 2 FTEs' for the schools and now could afford 0 5 FTEs' If MassCAP funding were made available, there would then be 1 0 FTEs' in the schools At the same time, it should be noted that the total complement of RePlace counselors was 1 5 FTEs' Bill said he spoke for the Board in stating that RePlace did not wish to give up what it was already doing in the community outside of the school system The Committee agreed to advise Renee of this discussion in the event that she would wish to present the Committee' s position on the floor or Town Meeting 5 The Committee expressed its concern about the one-sided nature of drug planning with its emphasis on a punitive Minutes, Human Services Committee, 4/24/89 Page 6 approach Respectfully Submitted, Stephen Baran, Human Services Coordinator ` s)