On June 25th, United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 6538, the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act. In reviewing the evidence of abuse in residential facilities, it is wholly appropriate for congressional action. However, the direction the bill takes will lead to its ultimate inability to greatly reduce abuse in the targeted facilities.
According to sponsors of the bill and a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), thousands (5,000 in 2005) of complaints are made annually about residential youth treatment facilities. These include the recently popular “boot camps” for troubled teens, along with group homes and institutions. The GAO reports that there have been many incidences of physical abuse, neglect and even sexual abuse at similar facilities.
The problem, the bill’s sponsors would say, is that the federal government has not had the authority to enforce oversight of many of these treatment facilities for youth with behavioral and emotional challenges. H.R. 6538 will authorize the federal government to spend up to $250 million annually to improve oversight, mandate staff education programs and improve the physical conditions of these treatment facilities.
I agree that $250 million will go a long way toward oversight and staff education. If nothing else, it is sure to help in the discovery of more abuse. I have my doubts, however, about its effectiveness in reducing the abuse.
The fact of youth and teen treatment centers, is that the people the residents see most are often hourly, part-time or barely above minimum wage employees rather than highly trained and motivated professional staff. Many of the employees receive little or no benefits, work two or more jobs to support families of their own and are required to participate in training without corresponding increases in their wages.
I am not saying that it takes monetary incentive to produce a caring, motivated worker, but it helps. The hourly worker, in the middle of the night, after 12 hours of a 16-hour shift, cannot be expected to show the same loyalty to company policy or rules as professional staff receiving two to three times the compensation.
Look at it this way — two jobs are advertised, both at $8 an hour. One is listed as a “convenience store clerk” and the other “youth worker, experience necessary.” If you’ve ever been a clerk or other near minimum wage worker, you can well imagine your response if you had been handed a two-inch thick manual and a schedule of training or courses to complete in a limited amount of time. But many so-called youth workers are asked just that, and even required to write a shift report daily.
It’s this inequity between expectations and compensation that makes the solution problematic. We are asking the workers at these residential facilities to work with a highly valued commodity (our children), but are willing to pay them only as much as the guy making a hoagie at the corner convenience store. What can we, or Congress really expect?
You be the judge: Joe S. works with severely emotionally disturbed youth, often accumulating 60 hours or more per week to make ends meet. Tonight he is in the 11th hour of a 16-hour shift and just cleaned up the vomit, clothing, bed linens and even the teenager responsible for it all. As Joe moves to another room, a second youth attacks him. Protocol calls for Joe to block and parry the attack, hit the call button for help and keep himself and the resident safe until that help arrives.
If Joe S. follows all the rules and keeps his job, he will bring home the enormous sum of $765 per pay period, after taxes. That’s about $1,530 per month to pay nearly $1,000 in rent or mortgage, $100 in utilities, $400 in food for his family of four, and that doesn’t include the two $40 fill-ups per week for gasoline. And now the Congress of the United States is going to mandate more oversight and rules for Joe to follow. That will help — NOT!
The Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act is a good bill and one that should have passed. But for Joe S., at 2 a.m. while being attacked, it makes almost no difference at all.
Post Script — If you’re reading this and have a child in special education, the classroom aide, paraprofessional or discrete trial/verbal behavior/floor time technician all face a similar quandary: near minimum wage pay and very high expectations.