uh next we're going to go down to uh to vote and approve the use of the choice program Mr the superintendent yes uh we are uh lucky this evening to have a few very important folks with us I'm going to ask that our school resource officers Joe nimic and Scott G will join us up
front but along with Billy beers who was the founder and CEO of the choices program uh one of the things that uh we have been doing here is working diligently to find ways to help our students who are struggling the most and so uh we have another uh kind of pathway
that we'd like to discuss this evening um with the hopes of approving the use of the choices program for our students who are uh most at risk and so with that I'll turn it over to you uh Mr beers to talk a little bit about the opportunities that await our kids excellent thank you very much um I
appreciate the opportunity to be here and and uh to meet with everyone um I'd like to if I could I'll just give kind of a quick 10,000 foot overview of what it is we do and why we do it um so I was one of these kids that um gets coined as
Behavioral or uh addicted in substance um I grew up in New York um my my dad died when I was 9 years old from alcoholism and I was the one that found them and from the age of nine until the age of 29 um I fail in every hole that these
kids are falling as and um I'm 23 years in recovery myself um I spend a lot of time in in Corporate America and then got remarried when I got remarried I happened to marry a board certified behavior analyst and I got to watch how um she worked with kids that were
non-verbal and unable to communicate back and forth and I watched her teach them how to communicate and it kind of sunk in and I said well I've got all this recovery behind me and now that we're starting this Agency for ABA let's take a look at some of the kids that I
used to be like and so we started doing a lot of research we started going out we met with all the recovery high schools throughout the state um I met with all the principls throughout um the state that run the recovery highs I met with um a lot of different school districts and I started to get the
knowledge that we needed as far as what are these kids going through what's happening with these kids in school what's what's causing suspensions um and so we started a program that was started out in the uh Beverly area called the past program and
the past program stands for positive alternative to student suspension and primarily what we're doing is we are for any kids that get suspended for non-violent reasons so if a kid is suspended for substance for tardiness uh for no shows um and they get a
suspension rather than that kid going home or coming to a Saturday Breakfast Club type detention we have the students come to us and we represent 22 districts throughout Worster County and so the student will come to us on day one of the suspension and on day one they're
given five different assessments and so what we're doing is we're looking at them from a clinical lens we're trying to find out based on the suspension why that happened and what's going on behind the scenes so after those five assessments are done um the uh past
program continues on and it runs from 9:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. every single day and um within that time frame we give uh two groups one is a clinical run group one is social emotional or psychoed um within that 9 to2 time frame um in
addition to that they have 2 hours of of academic time in a classroom with a teacher and um that time is spent using the work that the district provides us with that we know the kit has to keep up with and so we have uh we have a full-blown teacher and tutor um they'll
sit with the kids they'll make sure that the academics are complete um during that whole process if it's a 5-day suspension um they'll meet with a clinician at least once they'll do at least three check-ins with a clinician for 15 minutes at a time and the goal is
to try to um assess and analyze what took place what happened what are the triggers but then the important part for us is when we do the transition back to the district we give you a full-blown safety plan so that we don't need to suspend that child again we don't need
to add more trauma if it is clinical by nature and so what that means is you simply call choices we come we pick that kiddo back up and we bring them back the choices and we settle them down whether it's for a day or 3 days or 5 days whatever it takes um our goal is to be a
support mechanism um for the district and my goal personally is to last year alone with past we caught 76 kids under the age of 15 that had trauma starting at the age of five had never seen a clinician and were suspended multiple
times so as as this past program has been rolling out through the wor community what we're finding is it's a great catchet for safety we're catching these kids with trauma we're allowing them to see what a clinician whats like allowing them to see what choices has to
offer in a very dulled down calm environment and so our Center is based in in Wester right now at 108 Grove Street and um we run at least 10 kids a day depending upon the week some leeks
are heavier than others and um but at the end of the day the important part for us is really that transition back because we don't want kids to stop what they start we want them to finish their education but we want to catch the trauma we want to kind of capture what's going on and assist the district in
helping that student progress into adulthood properly um in addition to just the past program we also have um an APG which stands for an alternative peer group alternative peer groups were formed back in Texas about 15 years ago primarily it's fun and recovery so for
kids that are addicted kids that are dealing with substance issues kids that are hitting these carts in school um they come to the afternoon program in the afternoon program we have another two groups we run a clinical group we also run another social emotional psycho Ed group for that population but there's
more activities in the afternoon so a lot of the kids that came in for pass because they got suspended wanted to show up for the fun stuff afterwards so we actually have kids with us um from 9:00 a.m. till 7:00 at night some of these kids don't want to go home and so
um in the APG we do all sorts of fun stuff like we go for hikes we you know we go um to beaches we go to um Parks we we do a whole slew of things we have a very robust summer program that all of our kids come back for which is really
cool um but the the goal at choices really is to um to provide access to care for the populations that we serve and so when dealing with communities in towns Blackstone Oxbridge milville we want to be here we want to be present
for you and so we are um from a clinical perspective we're rolling out clinicians and we're rolling out some case management to this area in this region in particular to help offset some of the chaos that's going on and um in return what we're doing is we're trying to Loop in and become inclusive with districts
so that we can help with the alternative programming in any way shape or form that's going to assist the district right um I also sit on a lot of uh opard crisis boards throughout the state um and a lot of the districts are putting down line items on their opioid crisis
funds that they don't need to um and overspending is going to happen and so we're we're we're trying to work in inclusively with that as well within the communities and municipalities so we really are geared in um with the adolescence we only take care of
adolescents um so our age range goes from 12 to 18 um we do cover 8th grade um with pass and um we definitely cover eighth grade with um diversion and apj so the last program that um I can
mention real quickly is we did win the diversion grant for Wester County um two years ago it's a 5-year Grant so we're going into our third year um we have 97 kids in our diversion program and that's 93 more than anybody else in this in the
country so we're working on a deflection model versus a diversion model which allows us to keep the kids away from courts so when school scho districts have to file things like craws on kids for not showing up to school we have 90 days to turn that craw around so that
that that craw doesn't turn into a legal document so that that child who can't get to school on time because of they're depressed or anxious or addicted um they no longer have to add trauma to their case and we can work right through that with DCF and probation in the courts so
we really are um attempting to to handle the population differently than ever before before we're not redoing anything that's been done before because it didn't work and um I think the key for choices is all of our staff at choices um are afflicted personally with the
disease concept so we get it we understand where these kids are um and once they come in we love them until they can love themselves and once they do they don't want to leave and so um so we have a lot of good fun exciting stuff happening in Worcester and there's no
reason why we can't be inclusive in Blackstone and and and help out as much as possible here so I'm grateful for the opportunity to come in and um and the the resource officers are very important as well with what we're doing because these gentlemen are feet on the street these are the gentlemen that can hear
what's going on in the hallways they can see what's going on they can talk to these kids on a one-on-one level um and so choices is trying to really gear up and and partner with um school resource officers and different departments so that we don't have to leave any kid
behind you know it's almost like the Marines for me we don't leave anybody behind um so if you know if the district does have challenging adolescence um challenging situations going on with adolescence U today we have a lot of
resources that we'd like to offer um and try to help as much as we possibly can so I think that could probably give you the 10,000 foot overview was for I'm happy to answer any questions and kind
of go from there and I don't know if you guys want to add anything or I don't have anything else s join us because they actually brought the idea forward uh to Jill and I and uh Jill myself and our two school resource officers actually went and
visited the Billy and his team had an opportunity to take a tour um and then Jill fows and Mr duch Kei du charm also went up and had a chance to to the facility meet with the staff get a really good sense of the programming what kind of that day-to-day would look like for those students who would be
removed from school for again those non-violent offenses uh we do have a um kind of a cluster of students that are wrestling with some addiction issues uh at the high school that I think this could be a really helpful resource um one of the things the school committee
Might Recall at the evaluation cycle the end of last year evaluation cycle for me we had some discussions around you would put a lot of Provisions in place around uh vaping and some of the you know substance issues what is the next we can take to help address some of these uh
some of these issues and this was one that came forward as a as a really good opportunity so we wanted to bring up before the committee tonight um for a discussion and see if you have any questions for Billy and I just have one question um once the process starts you know a suggestion a student is suggested
to the program how does it work with parents getting the input if they're accepting of it how's that process so we have there's two different takes that have to happen one is from the district and one is from the par parent and so both take kind of a different route but the goal is to get them to meet in the
middle and have the parents come on the first day so that we can introduce ourselves we can meet with the parents they can see where the kid's going to be um and they can see what we're doing um we have a total open door policy so any parents or anybody that wants to come through for a tour is always welcome um
so yeah that's um the other one other point just to to point out as well where I'm choices is also a big part of the Oxbridge um opioid crisis team and so we're working diligently with Chief monoy um and that whole team on a
monthly basis um and these towns all fall into that and so one of the things that choices did right away was we went out and we kind of created this abatement process that the the state's looking for and the federal government's looking for so they're multiple towns
joining forces to combine their opioid money and once that money is combined Oxbridge could be the fiscal determinator so they'll manage the money it's no impact to taxpayers and because of the route that um Chief monoy was
taking we actually submitted a grant to double the um opioid funds that are available so we're waiting right now to hear back on the rise Grant which is a matching grant for 150,000 which would give this town in these communities a total of $300,000 to
use towards opioid crisis so the there's um a financial uptick too that we're we're hoping that we can get from the state yes K really is there like a long-term support for these kids like if they you know they're suspended that three days whatever and then they're not
suspended again but is there follow up with those kids then absolutely yeah so from a a clinical perspective what we'll do is um we're not a 45-day assessment we did try to get we actually applied for the grant with BS they told as we were a year ahead of them so we didn't
get the 45-day assessment but in all actuality that's what we really need um because we need to show the state that we can take in a child and we can assess within 45 days and make the appropriate referral because what's happening now is these kids are ending up in collaboratives and they're lost for years and so that has to stop and we're
working on that um but we have kids that come in for a 10day suspension go back to school 3 weeks later there's another hiccup they come back for another 10 days so we can always from a clinical perspective we can work independently based on Case by case um but our goal is
to be there for these adolescence all the way through adulthood so once they transition into adulthood we have a transfer program with Lake a recovery that we work Jack um is uh one of my my mentors and so he handles a lot of the young adult population once they
outgrow choices so we do continue on with them and we do have a young adult uh outpatient program for anyone up to the age of 28 any other questions so all the adult young adults they're all together in this program so so we have
yeah so young adults are that're in the mornings and is out creation only so a young adult means anybody from 19 to 28 and so and the reason for having a young adult populations CU a lot of our kids have young adults for parents um a lot of the kids and families that we work
with or in the Wester housing authority and some of these parents have five or six kids they're single parents there's domestic violence so um yeah we're we're looking at everything so the TW you said it goes down to 12 years old and then up to 21
yeah so 12 to 18 is the primary core um so past program is 12 to 18 the APG is also 12 to 18 um and then the outpatient for young adults is in the mornings from 9: to 11: so we keep it separate so that
they're only in and out uh but we we have four different cohorts that we're working with right now so we keep our eighth graders separate from our high schoolers we make sure that everybody is doing their own thing within their cohort um we have 18,000 Square ft uh on Grove Street so we're fortunate with
that we we can move kids around and make sure they're they're safe how does this look at so what's the plan on the school side you know we said we have a a group of at risk like maybe that's I'll ask my
question too say if someone is suspended today are they referred to you by the district is that how that yeah it depends on what the infraction is but so let's say there's a situation where a student is under the influence of THC or something um yes instead of just
suspending the kid for 3 days out of school uh there is a removal from school the kid is out of school for you know 3 days but instead sitting at home you know doing whatever we would make a referral to the Past uh program through the choices program uh Miss FAS Mr duch
Sharm would work with the family family would do the intake we would do the intake on our end and the student would end up going there for three days there is transportation from uh the choices program and the cost right now I believe is $90 a day per student and as the committee might be aware we have a
healthcare Grant of about 100,000 that was the total amount Jill is working on filing Amendment so that we can use that Grant to pay for this but uh we can't file the uh partner agreement until the committee approves it so once that's done tonight uh we would look for
authorization through the healthcare Grant to pay for the uh for the students to attend so that student would go for the three days um return there's a there's actually a second meeting where members of I remember this correctly Billy members of your clinical team meet
with our clinical team and that student transitions back if the student has another issue with substances we can send the student back and then you actually have it um at choices a tiered system where you would increase your support there's also an applied Behavior
Analysis like an ABA uh side to to your work as well where you actually can go into the home and do some clinical work with the families if necessary is that right absolutely yeah that's the yeah so the inhome Behavior Services um we offer we do um quite a few homes
in wer County um we have 53 clinicians that are on the um inhome Behavior side and so what that looks like is if a student is struggling with school or behavioral issues um and they need help in home we can send in a team and that team will go into the home and it's a
short period it's 3 months Max and it's not for the Adolescent specifically it's for the family it's to help the family organize the Adolescent better to get that adolescent up and moving so if we have some for instance a kid can't get up in the morning get to school we can
send bcbas out into the home in the morning so that we can shake the kid up wake them up and get them on a plan and start the process so the inhome behavior piece is is always a good option we also have outpatient services for adolescents and young adults we do a lot of group
therapies we do um some parenting resources at at the center um monthly but um and we're adding programs kind of weekly at this stage um they the uptick kids is quite quite a bit lot of kids
out here so schools are what the level that we going to what's the like their Catalyst that's going to put the suit into the so it first time offender or you know when does that when does this kick in this this program I was going to say we have
students who we have other supports that are in place for our students in school but we are seeing students who are multiple offenders you know it depends on what it is too you know what I mean we have what is the do we have an idea what the structure would be to put a student in into the because it sounds
like it sounds like a great program it does so they're currently working with Jill and Keith there's currently 10 to 12 students that would this would probably be a very good fit for right now that we've had multiple offenses of you know vaping and THC or alcohol those kinds of things that we would want to refer specifically for some of the
addiction work we're also really well connected with UMass Chan medical school and so we have um our own Believe It or Not pediatrician mat providers for kids that are addicted and um we're working diligently with UMass
right now they've they've approved a building for us to go in with UMass on for a true blue PHP environment for adolescence and substance abuse so they're um they're really looking at this hard and um a lot of what we're we're seeing in our Center we're trying
to have the the medical field see what we're doing as well because um even the doctors are kind of lost with some of this stuff they don't understand and you know what it means for a kid to be vaping um you know THC that's not real THC it's um all these dab pens that you
see floating around the school those are um it's fake it's Delta 8 it's not um it's not THC and there's most likely fentanyl or morphine in these carts we collected 174 carts over the past year and a half and we're having um new M to all the toxicology and then we're
presenting at the AMA board and walam um this summer so um we're really keyed in on what is going on with the kids what is it that they're ingesting and why um and how they getting it as well is a is a you know that's a job all
at any other questions and Mr superintendent what is the um we we uh the motion would be to adopt or to allow the yes District to as enter into an agreement with choices yes yep
we do anou with them if anybody's interested in making a motion to I'll make a motion I'll make a motion to vote to approve the use of the choice program second motion made by Tara s seconded by Tara L any further
discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed the eyes have it thank you thank you very much for what you do thank you gentlemen CH Scot thank you everyone your day