Northeast Parent and Child Society in Schenectady New York Needs to Be Investigated

Note: This article first appeared in the Sunday Gazette in January of 2008. Since a sixteen year old resident molested an eleven year old boy several times last week, I believe this article needs greater distribution and that Northeast Parent & Child Society's homes in Schenectady, New York need to be investigated and changes made.

I was both pleased and dismayed by Kathleen Moore's article (The Daily Gazette, December 7) about problems at Northeast Parent and Child Society's Park Avenue children's home in Schenectady. I was pleased because someone in the media had finally taken a look at what many of us have considered a long standing problem. I was dismayed because I have been trying to get government officials to investigate the home for three years. Not only have they not done so, it appears from Moore's article that the situation has gotten worse.

One of my children was a resident at the Park Street home for eight months in 2004-2005. During that time I visited the home approximately twenty-five times. Initially, I was assured by officials in Montgomery County's Department of Social Services (DSS) that the home was a safe and secure environment for children with mental health problems. Within a matter of weeks I realized that I had not been told the truth.

In a meeting with Bob Lennon, Nicole Wells and Marsha Benjamin of Montgomery County's DSS on February 1, 2005, I complained about practices at the Schenectady home. I specifically mentioned that residents ran away frequently and that it was so commonplace, the police didn't hurry to find them. I also mentioned the place was not a locked facility, when I had been assured that it was. Not only was it easy for children to run away (Northeast uses the euphemism "out of program"), it was easy for anyone to bring contraband into the building since packages and bags were never checked. Finally, I said that children with mental health problems and no criminal background were placed with children that have a criminal background. Specifically, one wing of the building held juvenile sex offenders and arsonists, who were allowed to mingle with the other residents during the day.

Bob Lennon, head of foster care in Montgomery County, responded in typical bureaucratic fashion by stating that Northeast Parent & Child Society "is a fine institution." When I asked him how many times he had visited the Park Avenue home, he admitted he had only been there once.

Since Montgomery County didn't seem to give a hang about where its needy children were placed, I wrote a letter to New York State's Office of Child and Family Services (NYSOCFS) on February 19, 2005. In it I complained about the lack of response by Northeast and by Montgomery County. I also suggested that it was a bad policy to house male juvenile sex offenders in the same building with vulnerable females who were mentally ill. I cited one example where a sex offender had formed a relationship with a younger, mentally ill resident.

I didn't receive a response to my letter so I sent a follow-up on March 10. This time I detailed how two older, juvenile sex offenders from the home had run away with a fourteen year old female. I finally received a letter from Glenn Humphries, Director of the Division of Development and Prevention Services at the Albany Regional Office of NYSOCFS. He said he would look into my complaints. I wrote him a third letter on March 26, explaining what had happened to the fourteen year old during the time she was AWOL from the Park Avenue home. I never heard from Mr. Humphries again.

On my now defunct blog, I occasionally wrote about the situation at Northeast Parent and Child Society. I received several responses from adolescents and parents involved with the home. One parent wrote the following about her bi-polar daughter who was in the Park Avenue home. "Since being there she has gone A-wall (sic) out of the home 7 times, 4 of which were for all night. We have complained asked (sic) to get her out of there. All to be told we can't move her until the evaluation is over...We sent our daughter there a virgin and she has admitted to having sex with 2 separate boys now..."

I just hope Moore's report doesn't get shoved under a rug somewhere. Indeed, a more extensive investigation needs to be done, not only of the Park Avenue home but of the other Northeast facilities in Schenectady. An investigation should include The School at Northeast where students are given little homework and are not allowed to take their schoolbooks out of the school?

I would also like to know why Northeast has a CEO, a COO and eight vice-presidents, while Parsons Family and Child Center with a bigger budget has only four such positions. And why are the people who spend the most time looking after the children only required to have a high school diploma and a driver's license in order to get hired?

Still the most important concern is the daily running away of children. My concern is not only that a child might commit crimes while AWOL as some have already done, but also that he or she might become the victim of a crime or an accident while AWOL.

In 2007, three children died at state run or state licensed facilities in the Capital Region. A thorough investigation of Northeast Parent and Child Society's facilities might keep that number from becoming four.