NW BOCES takes stock of its post-COVID standing

Carolyn Conner, administrative director of the Northeast Wyoming Board of Cooperative Educational Services based in Thermopolis, addressed the Hot Springs County School District  Board of Directors on June 16 to provide an update on NW BOCES, which marks 52 years this year.

Conner noted that, during the peak of the COVID pandemic, “we had kids, and the bad thing was, they couldn’t go home and see their parents, so we became really adept at using Zoom.”

Conner pointed out that NW BOCES is “accredited just like the school districts” and “also certified by the Department of General Services,” before she expressed her appreciation to “board members from Thermopolis who are always very good at representing (us),” just as she credited NW BOCES with adjusting its services to meet the needs of individual school districts and their “emotionally disordered kids.”

While NW BOCES enjoys “a wonderful school facility,” Conner emphasized how “essential” its member school districts’ meal funds are “to keep us going,” since “we don’t receive those state funds or fees for service.”

Conner elaborated that “we do have an apartment there, that used to be a home living and transition apartment, for those people (who) were a little bit low-cognitive, and needed some minor assistance, and would then be successful on their own in the community,” which now accommodates a psychologist two days a week, to diagnose and help deal with the number of kids who are “aggressive” and “violent,” to the point of harming themselves and others.

“We’re not working with kids that are juvenile delinquents,” Conner said. “We’re working with kids that have been traumatized, and have some real mental health issues, and less intensive treatments haven’t worked.”

Conner explained that NW BOCES receives inquiries from parents, school districts and the state Department of Family Services.

“Whenever a parent calls about a potential placement, I redirect them back to their special ed director or to the DFS office,” Conner said. “The big question that always comes after they’ve been placed is, when are they going to be done? What’s the length of service?”

Conner described the students NW BOCES is currently receiving as “much more severe than in the past. I used to be able to say, ‘Less than a year.’ That still sounds like a long time away from home, but now, it’s more than a year. They’re just really traumatized kids.”

Over the course of this year, NW BOCES has served three students from the Hot Springs County School District, and according to Conner, “We are closing the gaps with our kids, as they are making behavioral growth. They’re able to show us what they’ve learned in their school districts, but then, we’re able to teach them some of the things they missed because of behavioral issues.”

Conner touted most current NW BOCES students as either at or “high above” grade level, as BOCES works on helping them develop self-control and “emotional regulation,” so they can return to their school districts.

Conner cited “positive reinforcement” and “transition steps,” with rewards such as home visits and outings in the community, as keys to students’ successful returns to public school settings, and even pointed to one Thermopolis Middle School student in particular as a recent success story.

“But the thing that we need to focus on most, besides the children, is helping the parents,” Conner said, summing up how parents come in for one weekend each month to receive training on how to provide positive reinforcement of their own, and praising the parents she’s dealt with over the past year as especially “engaged” and “really wanting to work the program.”

Even when the students make return visits to their homes, NW BOCES remains available to provide guidance and support, to parents and kids alike, either over the phone or in person.

“Nine students were enrolled last fall,” Conner said. “Of those, only three are still at the facility. We have turnover throughout the year.”

Conner told the Hot Springs County School Board that NW BOCES seeks to use “the least amount of medication possible,” given how often parents want to take their returning children off at least some of those medications anyway.

“We want kids that are not just medicated zombies,” Conner said. “We want them having fun with their peers, and being able to learn.”

According to Conner, since 1998, 83% of the children who have completed the NW BOCES program “have not had to go back to another residential setting.”

Conner lauded the NW BOCES staff as “out in our community” and “all certified according to teaching standards, boards, or their particular areas of licensing,” with a “wonderful” average length of 10.85 years of service, and an average of about 40 residential and school staff serving between nine and 12 kids at any given time this year.

At the same time, Conner noted NW BOCES aims to add to its staff, since “we have seven kids today, and four referrals, so we need to staff up now, because those four are going to give us a lot (of work) to start with.”