MONDAY, JULY 12, 1999

Senator Musto recently hosted a meeting to discuss growing concerns over school violence and proposals before the state legislature dealing with the issue.

The lawmaker convened the meeting to receive input and advice from those individuals who deal with these matters on a daily basis. Invited were the professionals - teachers, school administrators and human service providers - who have the best understanding of the problems and therefore are the most valuable resource in identifying workable and reasonable solutions to the problems.

Through open and frank dialogue with the professionals and experts in this field, Senator Musto sought to accomplish the following:

• Identify programs that are successful and share that information with other school districts and human service providers.

• Identify additional resources that the school districts and human service providers need to successfully accomplish their tasks.

• Receive input and direction as to possible legislative initiatives that would assist schools and human service agencies in the performance of their duties.

The goal of such a discussion group was to identify what tools were needed to ensure that the schools and agencies are best prepared to deal with the situations they are facing. It is not the intention to replace or modify services, but rather supplement and complement those services already being provided.

Joseph P. Casarella, Superintendent of the Wyoming Area School District, said the family is an integral part of any successful prevention, intervention or remediation program. Lack of parenting skills often contributes to the problems experienced by students. Improving the family environment decreases the potential for disruptive behavior and increases the potential of successfully implementing corrective measures once a problem is identified.

While improving the family environment is no easy task, Mr. Casarella believes the likelihood for success is improved if the schools are involved and referrals to human service agencies are coordinated through the schools.

Mr. Joseph Loftus-Vergari, Director of the Luzerne County Office of Human Services, offered his thoughts on successful human services programs in schools. His presentation and blueprint for successful programs can be summed up as follows:

• Prevention and intervention programs must be tailored to each school district, and often times to the individual schools within the district because of community resources such as transportation, housing and other social factors of the community or neighborhood.

• Teachers are not social workers and social workers are not teachers, however, they must work together in order for a program to be successful.

• There must be a direct link and interaction between human service providers and the school districts they serve.

A legislative issue mentioned during the discussion period was a pending bill that would un-link human service providers from schools.

The purpose of the bill is to protect parental rights and privacy but, as written, would also severely restrict, if not totally prevent, the exchange of information between social service agencies and schools, according to some officials The providers and educators recognize the importance of privacy and parental rights, but restricting or preventing the exchange of certain information between the two disciplines would create an unnecessary roadblock in the performance of their duties, it was stated

The preferred models for services and programs, as documented in this report, are built on the availability and exchange of information in a multi-disciplinary approach to intervention and prevention measures for at risk youth. There has to be an exception made to facilitate the exchange of such information, according to statements made during the discussion. Restricting the flow of pertinent and valuable information is counterproductive to establishing a system that offers the best possible services, it was said.

Those in attendance appreciated the opportunity to discuss these important issues and felt there was a definite need to open lines of communications with their elected officials.

The forum not only provided the opportunity to inform the Senator of their concerns within the educational and social services systems, it also provided for the exchange of information between the two disciplines.

According to Senator Musto, the human service providers and school officials will be meeting in the near future to further discuss their needs related to this important issue.