Northeast Parent & Child Society Needs To Be Investigated!

A little over a year ago, Berkshire Farm was investigated for staff members abusing drugs and children. The abuse was found to be real and Berkshire has been affected by the scandal and has had to lay off workers.

If there is an institution in the Mohawk Valley that needs to be investigated, it is Northeast Parent & Child Society, particularly its home for children on Park Avenue in Schenectady. The Society houses male juvenile sex offenders and young girls in the same building. They do have times in which they are allowed together, and on more than one occasion, juvenile sex offenders have taken advantage of young girls there.

There is no security at the home. People can come and go as they please. Bags are not checked, and contraband can easily be brought in. If a teen or younger child decides to walk out of the home, the staff members are not allowed to restrain them. They have to call the police.

For seventeen hours or so each day and all weekend, the kids are looked after by staff members whose only requirements for their jobs is that they have a high school education and a driver’s license. Of course, they are underpaid.

While the administrative staff of Northeast Parent & Child Society have a beautiful, brand new building to work in, the children live in a half-century old, dreary building on Park Avenue. There is a huge wage differential between those who administer the programs and those most directly involved with the day to day care of the children.

Most of the counties in the Mohawk Valley send children to this home. The heads of the foster care units in these counties don’t have a clue as to what the home is like or what goes on there. I talked to the head of the foster care unit in Montgomery County. He has been in foster care work all of his adult life and has only visited Northeast once.