Richard Krause, who researched detention center education programs around the country, didn’t want Lancaster County’s to be like most of them.

Most are “caretaker programs,” said the former supervisor of the Pathfinder Education Program used at the Lancaster County Youth Services Center.

In many, he said, kids spend three or four hours a day doing worksheets, filling in answers that teachers check.

“We weren’t satisfied with just doing average stuff,” he said.

So Krause, a former Lincoln Public Schools administrator, designed a program based on the idea of meeting individual needs.

The detention center’s design allows all students except those in the highest security pod to leave their living area for school. Teachers have their own classrooms that hold equipment and supplies they need, and there’s a technology room where students can work on online courses offered through LPS.

Teachers design lessons based on the students’ needs, and the program is based on building relationships, something especially important for kids in detention.

Randy Farmer, who succeeded Krause as supervisor, said staff has recently worked to improve how teachers assign academic credits. They’re also working on new ways to help the kids make smooth transitions when they leave.

Jim Bennett, who teaches a life skills program, meets with each departing student, answering questions about where they’re going, what they can expect. It works well, he said, and eases much of the anxiety.

But he thinks more needs to  be done once kids are out in the community and to that end, he’s started a new program called the Reunion.

It’s a tutoring and mentoring program connected to an existing program called The Hub.

The idea, Bennett said, is to create a place for kids to get help with studies, or help finding a job or just be a contact point.

“They come in here, have success, get enjoyment out of learning, then go back to the same struggles,” he said.

Now, just one student is getting help with math, and the Pathfinder’s math teacher volunteers his time to help her.

Bennett is looking for ways to get more kids there. He tried sending business cards with them when they left, but he hard from five kids out of 400.

He’s not deterred. He figures making that call is just a step they won’t take, so he’s decided he’ll call them.

He wants a way to offer help, but he doesn’t want to make it mandatory. 

“If it’s mandatory, it becomes another hurdle, another failure point.”

Bennett and others know those first couple of days are critical, that it’s easy to slip back into the same old behavior.

“They may have had the best of intentions here … but you put them back in their environment and there needs to be something else.”

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com.