When the time comes for your son or daughter to go to a program, how will you get him or her there? We believe this is one of the least understood aspects of dealing with therapeutic programs for young people. 

When teens do not want to go to a school or program, it is usually very difficult for parents, acting alone, to get them there.  When parents lie to their son or daughter to get them to accompany, that creates a trust barrier that will probably never be repaired.  ("Let's go skiing in Utah" or "We are only stopping at this school to see what it is like").  We urgently request that parents never do that sort of thing and will not recommend any program that would admit a student knowing that parents have done that. 

We know of many scenarios that raise safety issues when parents have attempted to transport.  Kids have jumped out of cars, created a ruckus at airport security, become combative with parents, etc. 

We also know of situations in which parents have attempted to engage a relative or family friend to handle transportation (when there is a good rapport, that actually might work).  We know many situations in which a parent has gone to an off-duty policeman or security company to handle a transport situation.  That is virtually always  a mistake.  Although some police officers would do this well, the parental assumption behind that is usually that the principal skill needed is to be able to coerce compliance.  That is incorrect. The principal skill needed is conflict resolution, a skill many law enforcement people have.  People who only understand coercion are not appropriate for transporting teenagers. 

A large number of firms provide safe and efficient transport/escort service. Some of the better firms are forming a trade group Association of Mediation and Transport Services (AMATS) to establish and enforce standards.  We welcome this development.

One problem is that among the best providers of this service (not demeaning the many quality groups that do not fit this characteristic) are the stand-alone escort teams that are not associated with a larger company. To the best of our knowledge, none of these organizations have chosen to join AMATS. These  stand alone groups have the advantage that the person you make arrangements with is the person who does the job.  We believe that even the larger organizations need to handle their agency with the actual escort team so that the families understand that -- although financial arrangements and legalities are with the larger organization -- the human relationship is between the family and the actual escort team and that relationship is established by telephone before they arrive at the home to pick up the young person.  This means that although contracting and selection of the escort team might be handled by an intake person at a central office, the actual escort team's lead agent begins interaction and relationship building with the parents by telephone and works out actual logistics regarding the time of pickup directly with the parents without an intermediary.  The transport team should not arrive at the home as strangers. 

To re-emphasize this point -- where there is an organization with more than one escort team and a central booking office, the role of the central office needs to be limited.  Families engage a particular escort team where they have an opportunity to learn the specifics of who those people are, what their particular experience, training and expertise is, and once that is decided, communicate directly with that team using the central booking office only as a back-up point of contact.  We solidly recommend against any arrangement in which a family engages a multi-team company which in turn sends out an anonymous or generic team. 

We do not object to the central booking office handling plane reservations and other travel arrangements -- we see that as part of "legal and business" -- so long as parents have the opportunity for a telephone interview with the team that will actually handle the transport and not be limited to communication with a person who is no more than a booking agent.   Some companies will likely object to this guideline.   However, we find it difficult to believe that an agent who has the human relations skills necessary to this job and has an appropriate understanding of the legal and geographical context and of proper procedure would have difficulty doing this competently and professionally.  A company using agents who would not handle this task well would be well advised to reconsider its choice of agents. 

In our opinion, among the best of escort/transport services are some of the single team (mom'n'pop) services where the person who takes your phone call is one of two people who does the job. We have had extensive experience with Eddie and Tyna Curry at First Step Adolescent Service, and do not believe the transport services that are members of AMATS exceed their excellence.  We also have had excellent experience with a variety of the AMATS members, as well as some other stand-alone escort teams that have not joined AMATS. We hope that AMATS will become an organization that the stand-alone teams will choose to join so that their expertise can join forces with the larger groups to improve the entire industry.

Our concept here is that transport is at its best when families contract with a specific trusted escort team.  Frequently (but not always) the best way to access such a team is through an established company that will handle business arrangements and facilitate contact with the team doing the job. That team will be transporting YOUR CHILD. But the relationship needs to be between the hiring family and the escort team not between the hiring family and a central booking agent. 

Guidelines:

• The best of escorts/transports work primarily by building rapport with the kids, and never brute force.  Actual restraint occurs only when there is a safety issue. When safety is at issue, restraint might be used to keep a person from moving. It must never be used to force movement in a direction the person being transported will not go. Agents must be properly trained both in avoiding the need for restraint and the proper and safe use of it when necessary.
• Escort teams need to reassure parents who are likely to be dealing with an emotional crisis when they engage an escort or transport team.  Transport companies need to recognize that assisting with parent comfort and confidence is a critical part of their responsibility.
• In the rarest of instances handcuffs may be used. Transport services that use handcuffs routinely are not appropriate and should be avoided. The need to use handcuffs generally communicates a lack of competence on the part of the transport agent, in addition to some other problems.  Appropriate use of handcuffs would be a very brief interlude (perhaps a half hour or less) after the person being transported has acted in an unsafe manner.  While we know of instances in which young people have been transported long distances in handcuffs, we know of no instance in which that has been appropriate.  Shackles and other mechanical restraints are unnecessary and inappropriate. We believe that this guideline would be exceeded only when the escort/transport team lacks competence or when the escort team has not allowed enough time to induce cooperation at the first encounter. 
• Escort teams should be skilled in allaying parent fears and anxieties and able to develop rapport with the people being escorted.
• Consultants, schools and programs, and even the central booking offices of the larger transport organizations need to limit their involvement with setting up transport arrangements so as not to inhibit development of rapport between the escort/transport team and the parents.
• Escort/Transport companies need to provide for an opportunity for the actual escort team that will be doing the job to interact with the parents by telephone during the negotiation process.  That is, parents should be able to interview the actual lead agent doing the transport before contracting with the Escort/transport company and not be limited to interviewing only a booking service or a consultant or school or treatment program making the arrangements.
• A law enforcement background does not qualify a person to be in the escort/transport business.  The most important skill for a transport agent is the ability to de-escalate and turn a conflictual situation into a cooperative situation.  There are situations in which people from a law enforcement background have done well in this business and some of them have gotten the de-escalation training while working in law enforcement.  But law enforcement and/or a security or military background is not a predictor of competence in this business. 
• Transports always involve two agents, preferably one male and one female, at least one of whom is the same gender as the young person being transported.
• All agents have documentation of FBI background checks to be presented to parents. 

CONSTRUCTION BULLETIN:  This page will be further developed.  Redundancies will be corrected. When we develop program reviews, the reference to one particular transport service will move to a separate page about their services surrounded by comments on other services and will no longer be visible on this page. Similarly, we will move some or all of the reference to AMATS to a section on professional and trade organizations as that is developed.

Last updated May 15, 2008