Educational Consultants

When families are in a difficult situation with their child or the child has trouble in school many families are urged to hire Educational Consultants. These consultants often meet with the parents to speak about their child’s needs, but in most situations the child is left out of these meetings.  Due to this fact, Educational Consultants are often made to see a family situation through the eyes of the parents, without any input from their child. As a result, children are made to be seen as the problem. Little, if any, thought is given to the role parents play in the development and behavior of their children; and none is required by the educational consultants or their organizations. From these one-sided meetings, decisions arise which can lead to the placement of children in corrective residential programs or treatment centers.
 

In a 2002 California Senate Research Office report, expert testimony stated, “The attempt to impose ‘treatment’ by force is always counterproductive—creating humiliation, resentment and resistance to further treatment that might be more helpful.”  Despite this, Education Consultants often send children to residential programs. These consultants are in the position to recommend and refer therapeutic residential schools to parents who believe their children may need additional guidance that the parents cannot provide or do not wish to provide. Too often, Educational Consultants are influenced through financial incentives and other entanglements. This results in recommending certain programs to parents and their children. Much of the time, parents and consultants do not ever physically visit the treatment centers. Any expertise claimed by the consultants is likely to have been acquired on the internet through the school’s website.

A group called the Independent Educational Consultant Association (IECA) sets up many opportunities for educational consultants and abusive programs to…

Educational Consultants to be highly aware of http://www.strugglingteens.com/ec/index.html

Both of these videos explain two different families who used Educational Consultants who directed them to use residential programs. In the first video a father recounts how he was instructed by an educational consultant to send his son with clinical depression to a residential program and how his son was there less than a week before passing away. In the second video, a woman explains how her family was directed to use an educational consultant who suggested a residential program which ended up abusing her. These are not isolated issues. Educational Consultants are NOT educated themselves about the programs to which they send children.