Apalachicola Forest Youth Camp

School Mission Statement

  Our mission is to take children in crisis and create a foundation of security and hope. We believe that in order to help youth become productive members of society, there has to be certain principles involved. These principles are: nurturing, knowledge, compassion, integrated education, respect, problem solving skills, cultural diversity, and competency restoration. Apalachicola Forest Youth Camp works to prepare all students for successful reintegration to their families, communities, and learning environments, as Life Long Learners.

School Profile/Demographics

(Adapted from the January 2005 AFYC Accreditation Self-Study for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools)

 Twin Oaks Juvenile Development, Inc. School, Apalachicola Forest Youth Camp (TOJD/AFYC) provides educational services for exceptional students and non-ESE students who are court ordered to our facility by the Department of Children and Families. We provide intensive competency restoration services to juveniles charged with felonious delinquent acts and who have been determined by a Florida court as incompetent to proceed. Our program strives to quickly determine which youth may be restored as competent to proceed with court issues and assist the student in rapidly reaching competent status. AFYC offers small group living in a wilderness atmosphere. Our students, historically, have experienced problems with dysfunctional family situations, delinquent behavior, and typically have been poor performing students. In order to be deemed competent to proceed, a juvenile must have sufficient present capacity to:

¶        Appreciate the charges or allegations

¶        Appreciate the range and the nature of possible penalties, which may be imposed in the proceedings against the youth

¶        Understand the adversarial nature of the legal process

¶        Disclose to the attorney facts pertinent to the proceedings at issue

¶        Manifest appropriate courtroom behavior

¶        Testify relevantly

We currently serve youth from all over the state of Florida.  In the 2003-2004 fiscal year two hundred and nine youth, 93% male, 7% female, while 66% were minorities.  Our residential facility is licensed to house forty eight students.  The demographic data for the 2003-2004 fiscal year based on the number of admissions is as follows: 

¶        Average Length of Stay: 174 days or 5.8 months

            ¶        Average Age at time of Admission: 15.7 years old 

¶        Average Grade Level at time of enrollment: 8 years, 6 months 

¶        Average year behind chronological age/grade placement in school at admission: 3.6 years  

¶        140 students received special education services

Exceptional Student Education Services

¶        33% of students were enrolled as Non-ESE Students

¶        73% of students were admitted to AFYC with Pre-admission Psychiatric diagnoses

¶        47% of students had a history of pre-admission inpatient hospitalization for suicidal threats or gestures

¶        80% of students enrolled were from single-parent homes

¶          3% of students were from homes where neither biological parent was present

¶        17% of students were from homes with a foster parent present

¶        97% of students had experienced domestic violence, abuse, neglect, parental alcoholism or drug abuse, death or incarceration of parent

          or guardian

 Liberty County, Florida

FACILITY

A key component to our educational curriculum is a state of the art computer-assisted instructional system called PLATO Pathways Instructional System II. This is an individualized instructional program that allows each student to progress at an independent pace and enjoy immediate feedback. The program permits access to only the student and the teacher, as each level is different for each child in every class.

On December 22, 2005 the first graduate of Apalachicola Forest Youth Camp School is presented with his High- school Diploma.

 Because of the diversity of ages and functionality at time of enrollment, students are functioning at various levels. Assessments are administered to determine individual strengths and weaknesses. Based on background information from previous schools, including transcripts and transfer grades, students are enrolled in appropriate courses at AFYC. Students who are ESE have an IEP meeting and an IEP is written, or if the student has not been previously placed in exceptional student education, then an AIP is written (as appropriate).

 Students are also offered a variety of educationally supportive services. Each student has an assigned case manager that offers individualized counseling and guidance. We also offer Recreational Therapy and Art Therapy, and on campus you will always find our clinical psychologist and registered nurses. To ensure success post-AFYC, our facility generates discharge treatment plans for transitional services recommended when the student is released into the community. Recommendations include recreation, academic, social, medical, and other therapy services that would benefit the child in the school and family setting.   

School Wide Improvement Model

 Our school strives to constantly improve, and based on the results of opinion inventories from students, teachers, staff, and parents we were able to establish areas of improvement.

 According to the student survey’s, which was a result of the National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE) Opinion Inventory, students believe that the instructors had high expectations, but that the teachers could improve in the area of offering explanations of assignments and course theories to relate to their everyday lives. The teachers felt that is very important to review and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the programs methods and instructional strategies.  They also felt it imperative to institute a school improvement plan. Based on results from surveys submitted by community stakeholders and the students, they felt that the education at AFYC was overall performing well.  When survey results were submitted by the staff at AFYC, they felt that the teachers could and should do a better job at education students in ethical and moral responsibilities. They also felt that the educators at AFYC should focus more on how our students could improve as self-motivated economically efficient members of society. Staff at AFYC who completed a modified version of the student surveys included our social services and administrative staff, and they thought that the education department represented a reflection of the ethnic diversity as within our student population. All surveys indicated a need for more efforts to be initiated in order for parental involvement to increase. It should be noted that no parent surveys were returned. The Community Surveys represented members of the local business community and results indicated that the community would like to receive more information about our facility, and they thought it difficult to stay current with news about our facility.

The average survey results did not indicate a specific area that needed to be addressed, thus no area scored in the low satisfaction or dissatisfaction realm.  All survey groups ranked the Support for Student Learning and School Climate/Environment for Learning as less satisfactory than other areas. 

Based on the results of the surveys, and input from the faculty, a school wide improvement plan was created.

School Advisory Council

The School Advisory Council will be comprised of Students from the Apalachicola Forest Youth Camp who have earned the status of Cabin Chief, teachers, staff of the school, Administrative Staff of AFYC (Program Director, Case Managers, Psychologist, Behavior Program Specialist, and Shift Supervisors), parents (by invitation), and community and business leaders. The Council will meet quarterly to discuss needs and concerns of the school. In addition, the School Advisory Council will work to provide a positive communication link between the Camp and the local community. The school administration will be responsible for providing data to this council for decision-making processes, such as the writing of the School Improvement Plan.

Membership of the Apalachicola Forest Youth Camp’s School Advisory Council (SAC) was updated with the 2005-2006 School Year. The roles of the SAC members include but are not limited to those specified as follows:

 Members:

¶         Determine School Improvement priorities

¶         Publicize the School Improvement Plan

¶         Support the School Improvement Plan implementation

¶         Evaluate the School Improvement Plan

Chairperson:

            ¶         Schedule SAC Meetings

¶         Set agenda of all meetings with the Director of Exceptional Student Education and Rehabilitation Therapy Services Director

¶         Sends Meeting Notices prior to meeting date (at least one month)

¶         Facilitates Meeting

¶         Determines strategy for making plans available

Director of Exceptional Student Education and Rehabilitation Therapy Services Director—is a SAC Member

¶         Remain informed of all legislations governing SAC’s

¶         Facilitates election process as stated in by-laws

¶         Seeks input form staff and the SAC on SIP

¶         Leads revision, implementation, and evaluation of the SIP

Communication with Parents

 All parents are invited to be involved in the treatment plan goals as developed by the Case Managers of AFYC, and they are invited to all School Conferences and IEP meetings.  Annual Goals of Progress are reported to parents at the end of every nine weeks and updates of educational goals and progress are documented every two weeks and available to parents at any time.  Visitation is every Sunday, and parents can request a conference with the teachers for this time period, via contacting the teacher, the Director of ESE, or the student’s Case Manager. Efforts are made, on an as-needed basis, to provide speakers of other languages access to their preferred language for all written documents and verbal conferences.

 Adequate Progress Statement    

 Our school will meet adequate progress if each student maintains or improves academically on the PLATO Pathways System, PIAT-R, Report Card grades, LCCE Knowledge Battery (Alternate Assessment), or the FCAT scores. 

At the conclusion of every grading period, and every quarter, student data will be evaluated by the Exceptional Student Education and Rehabilitation Therapy Services Director and staff to see if adequate progress has been made by each student who is currently enrolled. Unfortunately, students are not enrolled in our school for an entire year.  If a student is enrolled at the time of the FCAT and at the time of the next school year, then those scores are analyzed for achievement.  Those students who scores a 1 or 2 level will be assessed to determine if they made gains, but all students regardless of achievement levels are placed in courses to insure that they received appropriate remediation and education on their level. This will not be limited to Reading and Mathematics, but also Language Arts and Writing.  During the school year, school grades and diagnostic tools (DAR, PIAT-R, Breaking the Code Pre/Post Test) will be utilized to evaluate progress. Recommendations will be made as the student is discharged as to courses student should be enrolled in at his/her next school in order to meet adequate progress on the subsequent FCAT.