Four entities have submitted bids to provide the services now offered at the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, the state’s only youth detention facility, as the Scott administration moves forward with plans to close it.
Exact dollar amounts as well as the specific plans by those submitting bids remain closed to public scrutiny as state officials review the bids in preparation of awarding a contract to one, or more, of the entities, depending on what services each is seeking to provide.
The Vermont State Employees Association, which represents the roughly 50 people who work at the facility, opposes the closure and is calling for bidding information to be made public.
Prior to the awarding of a contract, the respective bids are considered confidential and proprietary in order to keep the process fair, according to Leslie Wisdom, general counsel for Vermont’s Department for Children and Families.
“What we can announce when we open them is the name of the bidder and their address,” Wisdom said at the bid opening Friday afternoon. DCF oversees the operation of the Woodside facility.
The four entities that submitted bids by last Friday’s deadline were:
— Becket Family of Services of Orford, New Hampshire. The company’s website describes it as a nonprofit organization that provides youth and family services, including therapy, mentoring, home-based treatment as well as residential care.
— Foundations Behavioral Health of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The company, according to its website, provides a “comprehensive network of behavioral, psychiatric, educational, and community services offered for children, adolescents and young adults.”
—Grafton Integrated Health Network of Winchester, Virginia. The company is a “multi-state behavioral health care organization serving children, adolescents, and adults with complex behavioral health challenges,” according to its website.
—Institute of Professional Practice Inc. of Berlin, Vermont. According to its website, it is a nonprofit human services organization that provides treatment and supports to people with special and educational needs throughout New England as well as in Maryland.
The request for proposals, Wisdom said, was for a “wide variety of services,” including residential treatment and services for youth in a community-based setting. Entities could bid on one or more of the services.
A committee will be formed to review each of the four proposals before ultimately presenting a summary of each bid to DCF Commissioner Ken Schatz, who would make a final decision.
The RFP calls for a “commencement of contract” by May 1. However, closing Woodside still requires the approval, by statute, of the Legislature.
Legislative committees have been taking testimony over the past several weeks from parties associated with Woodside, including state officials, treatment providers, advocacy organizations, and workers at the center.
Wisdom said administration officials are expected to testify next week before legislative committees to provide lawmakers with a “broad overview” of the information received through the bidding process.
“We can’t talk about the actual bids themselves until that process is concluded and contracts are awarded,” she said.
The Scott administration announced late last year plans to close the 30-bed Woodside facility in Essex, citing the low numbers of youth receiving care there. Woodside serves youth, ages 10 to 18, often in need of mental health treatment.
That announcement came days after it was reported that there were no youth at the facility for the first time in more than 30 years of operation. The facility in recent months has been caring for between three and five residents, according to officials.
Woodside currently has a roughly $6 million budget, and state officials say they can save more than $3 million by closing it and contracting those services out.
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The VSEA has voiced strong opposition to the administration’s plan to close the facility. It is pushing alternative proposals, such as scaling back parts of the services offered at the facility.
Steve Howard, VSEA executive director, said Monday that while the Scott administration by law doesn’t have to publicly release the bid documents at this point, he is calling on it to do so.
“The lack of transparency makes me very suspicious about this whole thing,” Howard said. “They just want to shove this down the Legislature’s throats.”
He added that such transparency is needed to allow for a comparison of the bids submitted Friday with alternatives proposed by the union and the workers at Woodside.
“They think they’re going to be able to get away without telling legislators what these bids look like,” Howard said of the Scott administration. “They’re going to try to hide as much of the detail as they can, but I don’t think that’s going to work.”
He then said of the administration, “What are they afraid of?”
In announcing plans to close the facility, the state put out a request for proposals seeking an entity or entities to provide the services.
Specifically, the request was seeking, “Vermont trauma-informed treatment services for youth with serious emotional, behavioral and/or mental health needs.”
Through the bidding process, according to the RFP, the state is seeking “to establish contracts with one or more companies that can provide in-state (Vermont) short-term and long-term residential services and/or wrap around community-based services” for youth “that present with serious emotional, behavioral mental health needs.”
According to the request for proposals, entities submitting bids will be scored on several matters, including how a bidder would ensure youth are served in the “least restrictive setting possible” as well as options for a secure setting for a youth with “high-risk profile.”
Over the past year, the Vermont Defender General’s Office and Disability Rights Vermont have both filed lawsuits against Woodside and DCF, challenging the use of physical restraints at the facility, as well as seclusion and isolation of youth at the facility.
In the Disability Rights Vermont case, federal Judge Geoffrey Crawford issued a preliminary injunction this summer requiring DCF to update its policies to conform with national standards regarding the use of restraints as well as implement other changes.
