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Show USTS evaluation recommends moving students to homes The population at the Utah State Training School should be lowered by at least 50 percent according to results of evaluations conducted by the staff members of the State Division of Services to the Handicapped. Han-dicapped. The estimate was made as the result of the California Development Evaluation Report (CDER) conducted con-ducted at the school during October, November and December of last year. The preliminary report shows at least 345 of the schools' residents should move. There is only funding for about 100 of these to the move in the next year, however. Dr. Gary Nakao, Director of the Division of Handicapped Services and acting superintendent of the training school, said the tests were sent to the Department of Developmental Disabilities in California where computers analyzed the material and rated whether or not the individual could successfully live in the community. He emphasized the report is preliminary as there were some errors in the data. These are currently being corrected and studied to come up with accurate figures. "It's really too early to put an exact number on the possible community placements until we get the corrected results back," Dr. Nakao said. In addition to the test results, he said, there are other scores taken into consideration before a resident is considered for placement in the . community. "You have to consider a behavioral score, - people who have good self help scores but bad behavior, for example. Things like this have to be taken into consideration con-sideration in making the decision." "What this means is that in some cases, it may be too costly to move somebody out." Decisions on placements will be determined by an interdisciplinary team composed of the parent or guardian, direct care staff, the case manager, a representative from the See Training School Page 3 oXraining School evaluation ; continued from Page 1 i nSH office staff, the client involved and others, he said. nr Nakao emphasized no one will k. ''dumped" out of the training hool "The State Master Plan ! Iures that new placements must i; J equal to or better than the client's , listing program." nr Nakao said the training school , 'J remain fully operational and Si continue to provide services for I Zse who need it -but "it may be a different kind of service pattern as it, L Master Plan is put into effect, fj we will still need the school and will need professional support to take care of the clients who are here," he said. Dr. Nakao said they have funding to move 64 residents into the community com-munity when services are in place. It is expected another 40 to 50 can be more can be moved next year."Moving these residents will be done in a systematic way so we won't destroy the whole place," he said. Funding to move the first 64 residents came from training school money. Dr. Nakao explained because community programs weren't expanding fast enough, the school last fall offered to transfer funding for these residents into community programs. Not all of the money for each resident can be used, however, as "we still have fixed costs at the school. You can't move dollar per dollar out." Dr. Nakao said some of the direct care staff for these residents will be transferred to other residential care staff. "We hope we won't lose anyone, that it will be taken care of by attrition." |
