WEBVTT 00:00:00.00 --> 00:00:09.67 Wagons to Waivers - Segment 6: No Other Choice 00:00:09.67 --> 00:00:16.20 Effie Foster-Ballard: In 1975, my daughter Stacy became very ill, 00:00:16.20 --> 00:00:19.47 and she ended up with brain damage, 00:00:19.47 --> 00:00:25.03 and there were no services in Tahlequah 00:00:25.03 --> 00:00:27.43 or the surrounding areas at that time. 00:00:27.43 --> 00:00:30.23 Parents had a couple of choices: 00:00:30.23 --> 00:00:34.20 you keep your kids home with you, supervise them, 00:00:34.20 --> 00:00:36.43 teach them the best way you can, 00:00:36.43 --> 00:00:38.57 or put them in a nursing home. 00:00:38.57 --> 00:00:42.50 There were no community programs at that time. 00:00:42.50 --> 00:00:46.87 Reba McEntire: In 1975, in response to parents from across the country, 00:00:46.87 --> 00:00:50.60 Congress passed Public Law 94-142, 00:00:50.60 --> 00:00:54.20 the Education For All Handicapped Children Act. 00:00:54.20 --> 00:00:56.93 This law mandated that children with disabilities 00:00:56.93 --> 00:01:01.47 had the right to be provided a free and appropriate education. 00:01:01.47 --> 00:01:05.30 It was Oklahoma parents like Rudy and Gladys Jansen 00:01:05.30 --> 00:01:09.97 who took the lead in assuring that our state fulfilled its mandate. 00:01:09.97 --> 00:01:13.53 But for far too long, it was where Oklahoma families lived 00:01:13.53 --> 00:01:15.40 that determined if their school 00:01:15.40 --> 00:01:18.70 was able to provide what the law mandated. 00:01:18.70 --> 00:01:23.40 Effie Foster-Ballard: I checked out the special ed. department at Tahlequah, 00:01:23.40 --> 00:01:29.30 and it was literally just a holding pen for people to color. 00:01:29.30 --> 00:01:33.27 They had kids 18 years old and kids 6 years old 00:01:33.27 --> 00:01:39.37 doing the same type of coloring. They weren't learning anything. 00:01:39.37 --> 00:01:42.77 Of course, special ed. was mandated at that time, 00:01:42.77 --> 00:01:45.60 but it hadn't really taken off. 00:01:45.60 --> 00:01:47.83 Diana McCalment: What the school systems in this area had decided 00:01:47.83 --> 00:01:51.03 to do at that time was to consolidate services, 00:01:51.03 --> 00:01:55.17 so you had a co-op, and not every school system 00:01:55.17 --> 00:01:57.77 provided every type of class. 00:01:57.77 --> 00:02:01.77 So, if the school system that was actually your school system 00:02:01.77 --> 00:02:03.77 didn't provide the class, 00:02:03.77 --> 00:02:06.57 you could go to another school system in the co-op 00:02:06.57 --> 00:02:09.00 that did have that class. 00:02:09.00 --> 00:02:13.50 The only other program that was available to David 00:02:13.50 --> 00:02:16.77 was an hour's drive from our home, 00:02:16.77 --> 00:02:21.10 and our home school district would pay me mileage to drive him, 00:02:21.10 --> 00:02:23.63 but they would not provide transportation, 00:02:23.63 --> 00:02:25.67 and they would not provide a class 00:02:25.67 --> 00:02:28.73 in our home school district for him. 00:02:28.73 --> 00:02:31.77 Julia Teska: I remember the first young person I tested 00:02:31.77 --> 00:02:35.23 when I was at Paul's Valley. I called the school and said 00:02:35.23 --> 00:02:39.93 "Why in the world are you referring this boy for 00:02:39.93 --> 00:02:43.53 institutional placement? He doesn't need to be in an institution." 00:02:43.53 --> 00:02:46.20 And the school said "Well, we don't have a program for him." 00:02:46.20 --> 00:02:48.20 End of story. 00:02:48.20 --> 00:02:52.20 Rita Jekel: Well, I felt very lucky that I had a good school system, 00:02:52.20 --> 00:02:56.60 and I couldn't have done without it. 00:02:56.60 --> 00:03:01.07 I mean, if we lived in an area where there were no schools, 00:03:01.07 --> 00:03:04.70 I don't know what I would've done then. 00:03:04.70 --> 00:03:07.63 Reba McEntire: Because there so few choices at the time, 00:03:07.63 --> 00:03:10.90 parents who couldn't find educational service for their children 00:03:10.90 --> 00:03:15.53 often had to make the agonizing decision to institutionalize them. 00:03:15.53 --> 00:03:18.33 Rita Jekel: The reason that he went into an institution 00:03:18.33 --> 00:03:22.70 was the fact that I couldn't get any more help at home. 00:03:22.70 --> 00:03:25.13 Reba McEntire: Rita's son Jimmy had grown up at home 00:03:25.13 --> 00:03:27.10 with his brothers and sisters, 00:03:27.10 --> 00:03:29.33 but as an adult with severe autism, 00:03:29.33 --> 00:03:32.07 Jimmy became too difficult for Rita and her husband 00:03:32.07 --> 00:03:35.00 to handle without help. 00:03:35.00 --> 00:03:36.63 Rita Jekel: That's when they said 00:03:36.63 --> 00:03:43.27 "Well, the best place that he could go would be to Enid State School." 00:03:43.27 --> 00:03:45.67 Nobody wanted him to go. 00:03:45.67 --> 00:03:48.80 I mean this was the last place they'd want him to go, 00:03:48.80 --> 00:03:52.40 and of course the last place that we ever wanted him to go too, 00:03:52.40 --> 00:03:55.33 but I couldn't get any more help. 00:03:55.33 --> 00:03:57.50 Julia Teska: Many times, the parents had no choice 00:03:57.50 --> 00:04:00.13 but to bring the individual to the institution. 00:04:00.13 --> 00:04:04.37 That was the service delivery system we had at the time. 00:04:04.37 --> 00:04:06.00 Diana McCalment: At Hissom, of course there was 00:04:06.00 --> 00:04:09.63 an educational program on the campus, and it was, 00:04:09.63 --> 00:04:14.27 at the time, the state of the art for institutionalization. 00:04:14.27 --> 00:04:20.10 And so, as much as that wasn't a choice that we wanted to make, 00:04:20.10 --> 00:04:24.93 we, I guess, salved our consciouses by thinking 00:04:24.93 --> 00:04:28.63 that it was like sending him to a private school, 00:04:28.63 --> 00:04:32.17 because there weren't any public school options 00:04:32.17 --> 00:04:34.40 that would work for our family. 00:04:34.40 --> 00:04:37.20 I remember watching him walk down that long hallway, 00:04:37.20 --> 00:04:41.27 this little 11 year old with his red ball cap on, 00:04:41.27 --> 00:04:45.20 with his hand in somebody's that I didn't even know. 00:04:45.20 --> 00:04:46.67 I'd never met them before. 00:04:46.67 --> 00:04:49.80 I can't imagine what it must've been like for him 00:04:49.80 --> 00:04:52.77 to try and reason through, 00:04:52.77 --> 00:04:58.17 why everything that he had ever known was all of a sudden gone 00:04:58.17 --> 00:05:02.97 and we weren't there. 00:05:02.97 --> 00:05:05.93 At that time, the state requirements were that 00:05:05.93 --> 00:05:09.27 when you admitted your child into an institution, 00:05:09.27 --> 00:05:12.87 you weren't allowed to have any contact with them for six weeks. 00:05:12.87 --> 00:05:16.97 No phone calls. You could call the central desk 00:05:16.97 --> 00:05:20.50 and find out if they were ill or not, 00:05:20.50 --> 00:05:24.07 but that was about all the information that you got. 00:05:24.07 --> 00:05:27.23 I guess it really never hit me that, for six weeks, 00:05:27.23 --> 00:05:30.53 I really wasn't going to know where he was, 00:05:30.53 --> 00:05:32.90 or who he was with, or where he was sleeping, 00:05:32.90 --> 00:05:41.20 or all the things that a mother instinctively needs to know. 00:05:41.20 --> 00:05:44.33 One of his social workers wrote us a letter, 00:05:44.33 --> 00:05:46.07 and I still have the letter, 00:05:46.07 --> 00:05:50.80 so I guess that shows you what it meant to hear from him. 00:05:50.80 --> 00:05:53.67 I'm pretty sure that he did dictate some of it. 00:05:53.67 --> 00:05:57.93 I mean I know by the words and the names he used 00:05:57.93 --> 00:05:59.43 about our pets and that sort of thing 00:05:59.43 --> 00:06:03.50 that he must have been telling her some of it. 00:06:03.50 --> 00:06:07.27 But that was the only contact we had for six weeks. 00:06:07.27 --> 00:06:10.53 We did weekend visits, and we'd take a picnic out to Hissom, 00:06:10.53 --> 00:06:13.37 and there was a park there, and so we'd go 00:06:13.37 --> 00:06:17.10 and have a picnic with him on Sunday afternoon, 00:06:17.10 --> 00:06:20.23 and turn around and leave. 00:06:20.23 --> 00:06:24.77 Rita Jekel: Our visits were fine, except he wanted to come home, 00:06:24.77 --> 00:06:28.83 which was tougher than anything. 00:06:28.83 --> 00:06:31.90 We'd drive home and I'd be in tears, 00:06:31.90 --> 00:06:36.77 because there was my baby out there. 00:06:36.77 --> 00:06:42.63 It was a nightmare, and I cry inside when I think about it, 00:06:42.63 --> 00:06:45.90 because if I had to do it all over again, 00:06:45.90 --> 00:06:55.77 I wouldn't want to, but I had no choice. I had no choice.