New York State Education Department Records Show Long Standing Refusal to Intervene with Child Abuse and Fraud

UPDATE July 2013  -  In 2011, our campaign requested all documents from the New York State Education Department relating to the Family Foundation School following a 2010 State multi agency investigation (which can be viewed here or at the bottom of this page) into child abuse spanning over twenty years at the school.

What we obtained at this time are documents that contradict what the Family Foundation School Administration has claimed, that they are "unaware" of any abuse allegations or concerns in the past, and confirm what our campaign has alleged since 2009.  Since the retrieval of the documents listed below, the Family Foundation School has implemented a strategic plan to increase enrollment at the school, which includes partnering with more Educational Consultants (a.k.a. EdCons), who are usually members of IECA (Independent Educational Consultants Association), to refer more and more students to get enrolled at the school. 

The Family Foundation School has repeatedly failed to honestly and publicly admit faults from their abusive history, and although our campaign has confirmed that some physical abusive tactics are no longer in use, there is still severe psychological, emotional, verbal, and some physical abuse and neglect still going on at the Family Foundation School.

Below are links to some important documents that is a glimpse into how extensive our request for records went, along with the extent of concern about abuse by State investigators outside of the Education Department. The documents linked below represent a small part of NY State's agency which licenses drug and alcohol treatment centers concerns with the school as early as 1990. It includes their concern for the children at the school as well as the school's lack of licensure to operate and market themselves as a drug rehab (the school is not licensed to treat children with substance abuse issues or with disabilities). THESE ARE THE SAME CONCERNS STATE INVESTIGATORS BROUGHT UP IN 2010, further disproving the school's claim that they embrace and are open to changing for the better.

The school also received a letter from the State demanding they stop operating and marketing themselves as a drug and alcohol treatment center. NY State's former director of nonpublic schools, Thomas Hogan (who retired after the 2010 investigation) told the other agency that its none of their business - exactly what our campaign heard him say at a 2010 marketing event run by the Family Foundation School, while he was praising the school's work during a speech.

In the Family School Employee Guidelines documentation, many of the guidelines contradict how alumni claim they were treated, but since the document was revised in 2008, we are interested to see the guidelines prior.

We also included an email sent to NY State in 2006 from a parent who was concerned with the treatment her son was receiving at the school. Again, the State did NOTHING.

The other records we obtained which will be published here on a later date include a 1998 State investigation into abuse after a New Jersey judge who sentenced a child to attend the school discovered that he was mistreated and was subjected to abusive conditions. The state once again passively took action and told the school to stop wrapping kids in blankets and duct tape as a form of restraint - the school told the investigators that using that method is less abusive than using mechanical restraints (like handcuffs).

Our campaign is disgusted with the continual lack of any real actions taken when State agencies have uncovered the same methods being used throughout the last 21 years at The Family Foundation School with three official investigations (the 1998 investigation will be published soon) all showing the same neglectful and abusive behavior by Family Foundation School administrators and staff.