For foster children raised on a diet of tough love, the back-to-school routine is much the same, and inherently different.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published August 2, 2004
PINELLAS PARK - As 112,000 children across Pinellas County made back-to-school purchases last week, 10 foster kids at a group home off Park Boulevard wrote shopping lists of their own.
Armed with $300 stipends from the Sarasota YMCA, they plan to hit the Wal-Mart Supercenter today to fill their shopping carts with new jeans, shoes, shirts and socks, notebooks, pens, pencils and folders - things they'll need to begin the new year Tuesday on an equal footing with their peers.
Floyd Watkins, program manager at Carlton Manor, had hoped to take the boys shopping Friday, but the stipends did not arrive on time.
"It cut a little closer than I would have liked," Watkins said. "Things have been hectic the last week or so, but this has been an exciting time for everyone. The counselors enjoy taking the boys shopping and helping them make good choices on what to buy."
The counselors' lives won't slow down when school starts. The boys, who range in age from 12 to 17, will attend eight schools, including Osceola, Largo and Dixie Hollins high schools, Pinellas Park Middle and Richard L. Sanders School.
"We have to have some of them at the bus by 6:30 a.m., but some don't leave the house until 9," Watkins said. "We have some that get home at 1:30 or 2 and some that don't get home until a quarter to 5."
Watkins and senior counselor Barney Walter will attend teacher conferences and make contacts with principals, paving the way for communication throughout the school year to ensure the boys are making adequate progress.
"There are a lot of school personnel who aren't familiar with these kids," Watkins said. "They threaten to send them home if they misbehave. For kids who don't want to be in school, that's not a good solution."
Carlton Manor, which opened in February 2003 at 7272 64th St. N, serves children considered "unplaceable" because they are past the standard age for adoption or because they have behavior issues. In order to live there, they must have mental health problems in addition to being orphans.
Some have been mentally or physically abused and tend to be violent. Several have had brushes with the law. Most of them function several years below their chronological ages, and almost all of them achieve below grade level in school.
"A lot of these kids have been in the system a long time," Watkins said. "Some kids have been in and out of 20 foster homes. In a lot of ways instead of rehabilitating, we're habilitating. We're giving them skills they've never had before."
There are success stories. One 17-year-old who has lived in multiple foster homes passed the General Educational Development test in June and will walk in countywide graduation ceremonies Aug. 12. He hopes to join Job Corps, a program that trains and places low-income youths.
"Once they get that light at the end of the tunnel and see what they can be, most of the time they're really willing to step into a positive direction," Watkins said.
While Carlton Manor's 12 to 14 staff members work hard to provide a safe, nurturing environment for the foster children, they also maintain a strict discipline policy. Confrontations between the boys are swiftly handled by counselors and on-site therapists. A mandatory 30-minute homework and study period is enforced every day, even in the summer.
"Our philosophy revolves around the fact that we want to try to give something to these kids that they didn't have before," Watkins said. "However, we don't spend our time feeling sorry for them to the point where we don't challenge them to grow."
While Watkins and Walter serve as academic liaisons with the schools, case manager Beth Jacobson deals with testing issues and monitors each boy's Individual Education Plan, a document required for all special education students.
Jacobson also navigates "controlled choice." The plan allows high school students to attend any school in the county that has available seats as long as the racial ratio is maintained, but requires middle school students to attend a school in the attendance area in which they live. The boys' high mobility rate sometimes forces them to change schools, and requires frequent communication with the Family Education and Information Centers.
For the most part, school administrators know the boys come from a foster home because of their behavior issues, Watkins said. Fellow students don't know where they come from unless they choose to tell them.
"I think some of them enjoy the anonymity," he said. "They may or may not want people to know things about them."
He feels that while the children are in Carlton Manor's custody, the least his staff can do is provide them with a safe environment.
"Our whole purpose and function is to help them develop skills and move on to a foster home and make it work," Watkins said. "Our goal is to make these kids the kids next door."
