Ready for their license
February 15, 2007
By John S. Adams
Photo by John S. Adams
Sen. Carol Williams questions
Patrick McKenna, president of Montana Alternative Adolescent Private
Programs, during a Senate hearing on the licensure of the state’s
teen programs. Montana teen programs seek regulation
Bad weather and a late start on a
Friday didn’t discourage more than 60 people from packing into a
Senate Public Health, Welfare & Safety committee hearing on Feb. 9
to give and listen to testimony on Senate Bill 288, which would
regulate the state’s lucrative teen behavior-modification industry.
The overwhelming majority of people
who testified in last week’s hearing urged the panel to pass Great
Falls Sen. Trudi Schmidt’s bill, which would require the Montana
Department of Labor and Industry to license and regulate the state’s
28 residential and outdoor teen programs.
“This bill should be the state’s
top priority. If you care for children’s safety you should support
this bill,” Elizabeth Iberti, a former student at the Chrysalis
School in Eureka, told the panel.
In 2005 the Legislature passed a
bill creating the Montana Board of Private Alternative Adolescent
Residential or Outdoor Programs (PAARP). Later that year the
five-member board—which includes three industry representatives—went
to work examining the benefits of licensing such schools. Last
summer the panel released a 64-page report recommending that the
Legislature grant it another two years to continue considering
registration and licensure.
Schmidt wasn’t satisfied with the
board’s recommendations, so she responded by introducing SB 288.
About 75 percent of the 55 people
who signed up to testify favored the measure.
Testimony carried on for more than
two hours as a parade of psychologists, counselors, program
directors, parents and students took turns at the podium. Groups
from the Montana Advocacy Program to the Montana Mental Health
Association came out in strong support of the bill, as did the
Montana chapter of the American Psychiatric Association, the state
labor department, the Montana Office of Public Instruction and MEA-MFT,
the state teachers’ union.
Ken Stettler, director of the Utah
Department of Human Services Office of Licensing, took the day off
work and traveled to Helena at his own expense to testify on behalf
of the bill. He told the committee that licensure is the only way
the state can ensure consumer protection while also providing a safe
environment for children.
“I can assure you that we provide
an extremely valuable protective service to citizens of the state of
Utah, and to citizens of other states that come into Utah to partake
of these services,” Stettler told the panel. “The public places an
expectation on government to protect, and to provide protections of
basic health, safety, humanitarian care and treatment.”
Utah has had licensure and
regulations in place since 1987, Stettler said, and as a result the
state has been able to crack down on many abusive programs.
“You as legislators for the great
state of Montana hold the key that can make a difference in the
lives of children and vulnerable adults that receive services in
these programs.”
Stettler urged the panel to pay
close attention to supporters of SB 288, and to beware the
opposition.
“Beware of those programs that
oppose this legislation and decry the idea of regulation. If they
had nothing to hide, they would not want to continue hiding it.”
The only programs on the record
opposing the legislation were Spring Creek Lodge Academy of Thompson
Falls and Monarch School of Heron.
Only two people verbally testified
in opposition to the bill. The first was Gary Spaeth, a lobbyist for
the Montana Alternative Adolescent Private Programs (MAAPP), an
organization Spaeth said represents “between 10 and 12” programs
operating in Montana (Spaeth couldn’t recall which Montana schools
were members of MAAPP, nor could Patrick McKenna, director of
Monarch School and the organization’s president).
“I appear here as an opponent of
this particular bill, but a very light opponent,” Spaeth said,
adding that he agreed “with everything that was said” in previous
testimony. “We applaud this bill. We recognize the need in this
state for licensure.”
Yet Spaeth expressed concern over
the bill’s particulars, including its prohibition on the transfer or
sale of licenses.
“We know that in many businesses,
such as the liquor business and the solid waste disposal business,
licenses are transferred,” Spaeth said.
That comment drew criticism from
Sen. Kim Gillan of Billings.
“I don’t think, as you suggested,
this is like you would transfer a license for solid waste or
alcohol. I found that comment sort of a strange analogy given that
we’re talking about children,” Gillan said.
Spaeth and McKenna also expressed
concern about the makeup of the PAARP board under SB 288, which
calls for expanding the size of the board from five members to nine
and adding a psychologist, a physician, the superintendent of public
instruction and the director of the Department of Public Health and
Human Services. According to McKenna, having a lopsided number of
board members who don’t represent the industry could stifle
innovation at the expense of the teens in the programs.
“It puts a major majority into the
hands of public officials, in which case then I don’t feel like the
program voice is really going to be heard as well,” McKenna said.
But Sen. Carol Williams of Missoula
thought McKenna’s concerns were unjustified.
“I think this bill goes a long way
to making it so that it’s more transparent, there are more peopled
involved in it, and it isn’t controlled by the industry or a few
people in the industry or a few areas within the industry,” Williams
said.
Sen. Jim Elliott of Trout Creek
plans to introduce a competing bill, Spaeth said, that addresses
some of the details to MAAPP’s satisfaction. At press time that bill
was still in draft form.
Meanwhile, everyone at Friday’s
hearing seemed to agree that serious regulation of Montana’s teen
help industry is long overdue.
“As one parent wrote me, ‘the state
of Montana needs to step in with regulations which ensure safety,’”
Schmidt said in closing, “‘because when it comes to unregulated
boarding schools for disturbed adolescents, they are sure sitting on
a powder keg.’”
jadams@missoulanews.com
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