海角大神

Students pouring through schoolhouse doors in the morning is a time-honored ritual. At the New Orleans Therapeutic Day Program, that ritual looks 鈥� and sounds 鈥� a bit different.

In late May, a handful of clinicians and staff members wait in the front office, their hands resting on walkie-talkies. Teachers wait in four classrooms along the school's only hallway, and Liz Marcell, the program鈥檚 executive director, guards the door between the two.

The first arrival, a young girl, walks into the front office, cursing in the face of a clinician who doesn't react. A few minutes later, two boys come through the door tussling. Bill Murphy asks, 鈥淎re we having a hug?鈥� and wraps his arms around them.

鈥淲e let the kids take a little bit of the lead,鈥� says Mr. Murphy, the program鈥檚 academic director, in an interview. 鈥淲e also learn to celebrate incremental victories and to tolerate some background noise 鈥� sometimes a lot of background noise 鈥� in a way that it wouldn鈥檛 normally be in a [traditional] school setting.鈥�

There's a simple reason for this: The staff know that these children have nowhere else to go. The NOTDP is a public school that serves on a rolling basis about two-dozen children with such severe trauma and emotional disturbance that mainstream schools say they cannot educate them. In New Orleans 鈥� a city beset with high rates of youth trauma and a significant lack of mental health services 鈥� the two-year-old program is aspiring to expand, over the course of decades, to match the resources and expertise of its wealthier, century-old peers.

A need in NOLA

Taking a nonpunitive approach with students whose behavior might provoke suspensions and expulsions in mainstream schools, the program prioritizes behavioral skills over academic progress. Its aim? To return students to a traditional school setting.

鈥淲e believe that behavior is a [learned] skill,鈥� says Dr. Marcell. 鈥淏y being here in this environment over time, going over collaborative, practical solutions to problems, restorative practices, therapy, kids can develop skills to transition back to their [regular] schools.鈥�

Students who have been exposed to traumatic experiences such as domestic abuse, sexual abuse, murder, or abandonment don鈥檛 necessarily show signs of obvious physical or cognitive disabilities. Instead, they are often dismissed as disruptive 鈥減roblem鈥� students, experts say 鈥� and statistically they do experience聽higher rates of segregation.聽

鈥淪ome school districts and some schools are just very happy to send these kids someplace else and not necessarily welcome them back,鈥� says Thomas Hehir, a professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and Marcell's dissertation adviser.

This is why programs like the NOTDP are falling out of favor. Nationwide, special education experts have expressed concern that taking children out of mainstream classrooms doesn't necessarily address their real problems, and increasingly, schools are being told to lower their reliance on segregated alternative programs.

But Marcell says that while she agrees that traditional schools should be more inclusive of special needs students, 鈥渢here鈥檚 [always] a small segment of the population that would be best served in an alternative setting.鈥�

This may be especially true in New Orleans.

New Orleans youth have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder at rates three times higher than the national average, according to a 2015 report from the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. While hurricane Katrina 鈥渓ikely played a substantial role in this disparity,鈥� the report added, it also found that almost 40 percent of surveyed youth had been exposed to domestic violence or a shooting, stabbing, or beating, and 54 percent experienced the murder of someone close to them.

Furthermore, the city has lacked for substantial mental health services聽both in hospitals and in schools since Katrina.

For kids 鈥渨ho are so traumatized that they can鈥檛 effectively participate in class, cannot actively learn,鈥� the NOTDP is 鈥渁 place where they can come,鈥� says Lisa Legeaux, the program's nurse.

Since Katrina, almost all of the public schools in New Orleans have become charter schools. Some argue that system will lead to better academic outcomes (a claim that is hotly debated), but it almost necessarily means that mental health services are subordinated.

鈥淭heir charters are renewed based on those scores, on those academic achievements. So that鈥檚 their first goal and their first focus,鈥� says Ms. Legeaux, who previously spent 10 years in mainstream New Orleans schools.

鈥淥ur main focus is on getting them well enough to return to that [mainstream] school setting where they can learn.鈥�

So far, six of the 25 students that have enrolled at NOTDP have transitioned back to their home schools. Eventually, says Marcell, the school plans to track the graduation rates of the students who come through its program. "It will have to be several years before we have that data [on graduation rates], but we want to have kids have the skills to persist through high school," she says.

'Intense urgency'

The current challenges for the NOTDP, which can currently only hold a maximum of 20 students at any one time, is satisfying the scale 鈥� and the variety 鈥� of demands.

Given the loose expectation that students at NOTDP will spend about 60 percent of their time doing academic work, Murphy estimates that about 55 percent of the kids in the program 鈥渁re bad fits.鈥�

鈥淣ot punching their peer who鈥檚 annoying them, not swearing about how hard the work is 鈥� doing all those things at once is actually too demanding for them,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭hose kids actually need an environment that is unfortunately less academic.鈥�

But NOTDP is not always able to provide the more traditional therapeutic setting those kids might need. In that kind of facility 鈥測ou don鈥檛 have kids screaming outside in the hallway, banging on the walls,鈥� says Monica Stevens, a clinical child psychologist at University Medical Center New Orleans and the program鈥檚 milieu director.

The program currently operates out of a single space: a portion of a converted 19th-century cotton packing warehouse with thin walls. Lessons and therapy sessions can be easily disrupted by a loud tantrum from a student, staff say, and the current de facto outdoor space is an 鈥渁ctivities room鈥� with yoga mats, beanbag chairs, a basketball hoop on the door, and patched-up drywall where students have punched and kicked holes.

Next year, the program will double in size and open a second site at the Children鈥檚 Hospital of New Orleans聽for students who need a less academic environment. By 2018 they are planning to leave the New Orleans public school system and become an independent nonprofit.聽They also hope to expand through 9th grade. They hope eventually to include a full high school and an early-childhood center. Within 20 years, Marcell says, they aim to have a residential facility where students can stay semi-permanently 鈥� similar to the most prestigious recovery schools in the country.

But schools like these often have聽slower development trajectories and significantly deeper pockets. The Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania, for example, was founded in 1909 and today, with over $11 billion in assets, serves 2,000 students. The Wediko School, located on a 450-acre campus in rural New Hampshire, was founded in 1934 and now serves 44 residential students and 12 day students from around the country.

Given the 鈥渋ntense urgency鈥� in New Orleans, Murphy says the NOTDP is 鈥渙n an accelerated timeline鈥� compared to these kinds of schools.

鈥淲hen we tell [other schools] we want to be serving a minimum of 200 kids in five years, they think that that is insane,鈥� he adds. 鈥淏ut the need is so significant. They鈥檝e had the luxury of growing slowly over time, and we just don鈥檛 feel that we have that luxury.鈥�

Running 'against the trend'

Yet even while the program in New Orleans is seeking to expand, many US school districts are turning away from alternative schools and keeping more students in mainstream school settings.

鈥淢ost school districts are moving away from segregating these kids, because there鈥檚 a tremendous downside to that,鈥� says Dr. Hehir, who is also a former director of US Department of Education鈥檚 Office of Special Education Programs.

聽鈥淲e know [we] run against the trend of [favoring] community-based care,鈥� says Marcell, 鈥渂ut we鈥檙e talking about a population of kids who were already connected to community-based providers, and that has not been enough for them.鈥�

聽鈥淣ew Orleans is a unique setting,鈥� she adds, 鈥渂ut nationwide we always have to make sure there are high-quality alternative supports available for students for whom that鈥檚 deemed most appropriate.鈥�