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3 <br />three more classrooms. <br />HARD TO PLACE CHILDREN AND SCHOOLS <br />Ralph Wenger, Coordinator of Student Services in the Chapel Hill- <br />Carrboro City Schools, said there are educational deficiencies. Children <br />with chronic problems are very unlikely to succeed in school. These <br />children are not in a school setting long enough to pick up the skills they <br />need. Another real problem. that they bring to the school is lack of <br />connectedness. They feel they have no one who cares if they do well or not. <br />They are in the system for such a short period of time. and a lot of the time <br />they are in special education classes but they don't stay long enough to <br />learn anything. There are very limited resources to deal with these <br />children. They do have some self-contained classes but these kids need more <br />than what those classes provide. There are very limited resources. They <br />need programs that can mirror residential programs. <br />SUMMARY OF THE REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS <br />Joyce Moore said that the team proposes a forum comprised of both <br />state-level and local Human Service leaders with the following agenda: <br />1. Access current resources for hard-to-place children with the <br />goal of gaining more efficient access to these resources, <br />2. Examine the need for and means of creating new, community- <br />based resources for hard-to-place children, <br />3. Explore the possibility of pooling financial resources among <br />human service systems, <br />4. Advocate through appropriate legal channels for increased <br />funding for resources, and <br />5 . Address the ambiguity of the definition "minor" with the goal <br />of making that definition uniform. <br />The problem is that while the Counties are waiting for the State <br />to address some of these things, the local community and the County must <br />provide for the education of these children and treatment for their <br />emotional and psychological problems. <br />In response to some questions, the cost at Elon Home is $1800 a <br />month which is the least amount with the maximum of $7,000 a month and the <br />County must, depending on the individual case, pay half or all of this <br />amount. The Team asked that the County Commissioners work through the North <br />Carolina Association of County Commissioners for funding for some kind of <br />residential facility. Well over half of the 33 children are from low income <br />families. Everyone agrees that this is a desperate situation that needs to <br />be addressed. Because the resources must be used for crisis situations and <br />to deal with the problems of today, there are no resources to be used for <br />prevention. <br />Dr. Turner said that success depends on having adequate resources <br />to reduce the number of kids that fall in this category. He would like for <br />