CONTROVERSIAL PSYCHOLOGIST FOUND WORKING AT SPECIAL ED SCHOOLS
He is among the nation’s leading believers in “aversive therapy,” in which students with behavior disorders are pinched, deprived of food and shocked with electricity to control their behavior. For more than 30 years, state attorneys general, U.S. congressmenand the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture have alleged his methods violate the health, safety and educational rights of children with disabilities.
Now Matthew Israel has been tripped up by investigators at the California Department of Education for a seeming technicality: failing to submit school-employment paperwork.
Prompted by a citizen complaint, state investigators found that Israel is working as a behavior analyst or administrator for two Antioch special education schools run by his wife, Judy Weber-Israel, without being listed on the schools’ applications for state certification, as required by the California Education Code. Nor were the school districts that send students to the schools – including Antioch Unified, Oakland Unified, River Delta Unified and Mt. Diablo Unified – notified that Israel had been added to the roster of licensed staff, as required by the Education Code.
Upon closer inspection, investigators found that the schools, known as Tobinworld II and Tobinworld III, did not have records that proved Israel had cleared a U.S. Department of Justice criminal background check, held a valid license or credential or passed a tuberculosis test, as required by the Education Code.
The state investigation concluded that Matthew Israel is designing behavioral intervention plans and “is not qualified to do so.”
As a result of these failures, effective Aug. 24, the California Department of Education has suspended the certification of Tobinworld II and Tobinworld III, a status that prohibits the schools from accepting new referrals from school districts. The schools may continue to operate with their current students and the state has established a series of deadlines, starting with Sept. 16 and ending Dec. 31, for them to address noncompliance issues before their certification status is reconsidered.
Israel, who holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard and well as a J.D. from Harvard Law School, was licensed in California as a psychologist in 1978, but his license expired in 1987. His job duties at Tobinworld II included designing special education behavioral intervention plans, which are strategies to encourage students to act appropriately. State regulations specify that such plans must be designed by staff members who hold a valid license to practice psychology or a related specialty, an appropriate teaching credential, or a Controversial psychologist found working at special ed schools | EdSource:
