ACTIVE SEARCH SD - Serenity Dennard, 9, Children’s Home Society, Pennington County, 3 Feb 2019 #2

[human]

My child has never had educational testing by county adoptions, period. They don't care. They tell you that education of your child is not their concern. They basically pay for residential in an effort to keep you from returning the child to the system. They make it very clear, however, that they do NOT pay for any of the child's education while in residential. They do not act as the parent. The parent still maintains full custody. They only pay the bill.

They pay the bill but don’t pay for educational? I am confused.

 

[ilovechili]

Wow. Things have changed! I ia gins those kids will be starting on the IEP process. It takes awhile to get all of the documentation.

Truly, the beahvior in residential is incredible. But because of privacy, people do not know

Yes, I was shocked to hear it as well. I am not sure if it occurs in every school but I have heard more than a few stories about some so I would guess probably most schools see some of that behavior.

I do not know what happened in Serenity's case, and I am sure the workers have their hands full from what you have said the behavior can be like--I just would like to see it not happen again if changes can be made that would help in that regard.

 

[scaredtopost]

I cannot believe fire codes would allow locked doors that can only be opened with some kind of card. That would shock me if that was true in a residential school.

RSBM
Magnetic doors (requiring a key card or code to enter/exit a secure facility) automatically disengage if the fire alarm is activated or the building loses power. In most states, these buildings are strictly regulated to ensure the resident's safety and wellbeing daily and in the case of an emergency. Since SD was inside the building, I'm assuming the gym was not equipped as a locked environment. Do we know if other areas of the home were?
JMO, MOO, etc

 

[human]

RSBM
Magnetic doors (requiring a key card or code to enter/exit a secure facility) automatically disengage if the fire alarm is activated or the building loses power. In most states, these buildings are strictly regulated to ensure the resident's safety and wellbeing daily and in the case of an emergency. Since SD was inside the building, I'm assuming the gym was not equipped as a locked environment. Do we know if other areas of the home were?
JMO, MOO, etc

O/t. How would that work in a school shooting or if a student hurt the staff?

 

[scaredtopost]

O/t. How would that work in a school shooting or if a student hurt the staff?

The staff members have a "master key" that will fit all alarms and can insert it to disengage, as well. My experience is in a senior living environment, but I'm assuming all locked environments operate similarly.
JMO, MOO, etc

 

[human]

Has anyone seen this in any kind of school for kids except for juvenile detention facilities?

 

[mrbeansmom]

They pay the bill but don’t pay for educational? I am confused.

They pay for education and therapy. That's all. Education is on the parent. As I said, some facilities use local public schools, and some hide the cost in their residential fees.

 

[ilovechili]

They are going all night for the 2 missing girls in California with no success yet as far as I know. They have a ton of assistance the Coast Guard, blackhawk helicopter, a system that keeps track of where the searchers are, several dog teams, many agencies and even more coming in tomorrow . They also have some hope as granola wrappers and boot prints were found. Heading into a second night. They are going to block traffic and only allow locals through. I thought in the press conference he also said they would be searching vehicles (no foul play suspected but in case they reached a road).

Extreme terrain there too and a flooding river but a better climate I guess although it does get down to the 40s and it rained all night i think last night. This is the second night they will search all night.

Prayers for all of these girls, Serenity, Leia and Caroline.

 

[human]

They pay for education and therapy. That's all. Education is on the parent. As I said, some facilities use local public schools, and some hide the cost in their residential fees.

I still do not understand . You say they pay for education. Then you say education is on the parent.

 

[katydid23]

I'm sure LE has pinned this down after talking to everybody involved, and cleared up as many of the discrepancies as they can. And yes, as far as the time is concerned, it can simply be a matter of people approximating the time to the best of their knowledge, without knowing for certain.

One of the discrepancies is the difference between the time she reportedly 'ran' from the building=10:45 am,

and the time she 'was last seen.' --11:00 am at the cattle guard

and the time she was reported by the witness who saw her outside= 11:20

 

[SkipperKey3]

It's now been a month, with no sign of Serenity.
Weather still isn't helping. It looks to be 13 below there now. Yikes. Forecast is for a warming trend this week, and the long range forecast for next week actually has temperatures in the more normal range (highs in the 40s possibly), which will help a lot.

 

[SkipperKey3]

One of the discrepancies is the difference between the time she reportedly 'ran' from the building=10:45 am,

and the time she 'was last seen.' --11:00 am at the cattle guard

and the time she was reported by the witness who saw her outside= 11:20

I don't see the difference in when she ran and when she was seen as a discrepancy, especially if it is correct that the door she ran through didn't leave the building but went to a hallway. She could have easily been roaming around for 15 minutes or more, poking around with typical childlike curiosity, first inside then eventually out.
As for the last two times, the 11:00 at the cattle guard, and the 11:20 as the last witness - who are you saying saw here at 11:20 if not the people who saw her at the cattle guard? I take the 11:00 as an approximation only anyway, and give it a pretty broad window. If it was a staffer who saw her at 11:20, after the people in the car reported her, that could well be a more precise time, but again I don't really see it as a discrepancy. Rarely will three different people all be able to give exact times.

 

[PayrollNerd]

I’m not getting hung up on the specific timing either. Nobody wears watches anymore. Most have to pull out their cell phone to look at the time. If the cell phone wasn’t on their person, they may be guesstimating. If they’re using a walkie talkie type device, it may not be sophisticated enough to have a clock on it. It’s not like the disappearance happened at a busy shopping mall. One of two scenarios happened; she ran off or was picked up, the first being the most likely because its so remote. Sweet, sweet Serenity, send us a sign little one. We want you home where you belong.

 

[mickey2942]

Has anyone seen this in any kind of school for kids except for juvenile detention facilities?

I have, they are fairly common for children with behavioral problems, who do not meet the standards for criminal behavior that merits incarceration. There are many of these types of residential facilities, usually treatment is paid for by parents private insurance, or Medicaid. Often many of these places are paid for by block grants, and also private funding.

The work around on education is that the child is under a 90 day rehabilitation plan, that negates having to deal with education services and mandatory IEP services. After 90 days, Medicaid and private insurance funds are gone, so treatment is complete. And a transition plan has been established, if the parents can pay, they may opt for private pay residential school.

 

[ilovechili]

A month? What progress has been made here? How many searches have been done? Maybe tons but who would know? Any answers yet? Maybe that is unfair but this is so sad. Just expressing frustration. Yet my prayers continue.

 

[Jim_M]

A month? What progress has been made here? How many searches have been done? Maybe tons but who would know? Any answers yet? Maybe that is unfair but this is so sad. Just expressing frustration. Yet my prayers continue.

I feel the same frustration. I send similar prayers. And then I realize that for LE, this has been a recovery effort since February 5th. Sadly, that is the reality of their decision making on any further efforts here.

Yes, I truly hate to write this out. Yes, there has been little, to no, progress. Mother nature just hasn't played nice since this little girl went off on her adventure.....

Search for Serenity Dennard ends, transitions to recovery

 

[ilovechili]

I feel the same frustration. I send similar prayers. And then I realize that for LE, this has been a recovery effort since February 5th. Sadly, that is the reality of their decision making on any further efforts here.

Yes, I truly hate to write this out. Yes, there has been little, to no, progress. Mother nature just hasn't played nice since this little girl went off on her adventure.....

Search for Serenity Dennard ends, transitions to recovery

Yes, I try to tell myself that and to be fair, Mother Nature has not helped. Hearts say one thing and heads say another sometimes...

 

[mrbeansmom]

I still do not understand . You say they pay for education. Then you say education is on the parent.

I'm sorry, I wrote that incorrectly. They pay for room, board and therapy. Education is on the parent unless the rtc is able to work it into the fee as something other than education.

 

[mrbeansmom]

I have, they are fairly common for children with behavioral problems, who do not meet the standards for criminal behavior that merits incarceration. There are many of these types of residential facilities, usually treatment is paid for by parents private insurance, or Medicaid. Often many of these places are paid for by block grants, and also private funding.

The work around on education is that the child is under a 90 day rehabilitation plan, that negates having to deal with education services and mandatory IEP services. After 90 days, Medicaid and private insurance funds are gone, so treatment is complete. And a transition plan has been established, if the parents can pay, they may opt for private pay residential school.

That may be true in some instances, but not in my experience. With adoptions, the most common length of stay is 18 months. After that, an extension can be requested, and granted, for those where little progress has been made. Virtually all of the kids in the facility my child is in have their fees paid by adoption assistance (Medicaid/MediCal). No one pays out of pocket. The county where the child is adopted are no strangers to paying for these facilities. If the child has an IEP, and if the home school district agrees to paying for their education at the facility, that can all work together. If the district won't cover it, people have to get more creative. The county will only pay for room, board and therapy.

 

[mickey2942]

That may be true in some instances, but not in my experience. With adoptions, the most common length of stay is 18 months. After that, and extension is often requested, and granted, for those where little progress has been made. Virtually all of the kids in the facility my child is in have their fees paid by adoption assistance. No one pays out of pocket. The county where the child is adopted are no strangers to paying for these facilities. If the child has an IEP, and if the home school district agrees to paying for their education at the facility that can all work together. If the district won't cover it, people have to get more creative. The county will only pay for room, board and therapy.

I don't know much about adoptions, I know in general how rehabilitation for children referred to programs for behavioral issues and therapy works.

I thought that Serenity was already legally adopted. That means she is the responsibility of her adopted parents. Unless they were going through the process of relinquishing their custody, back to the state.