Sept 4, 2018, Albuquerque Journal: APS special education survey finds ‘very low’ employee morale https://www.abqjournal.com/1216552/aps-special-education-survey-finds-very-low-employee-morale.html While special education resources affect a large portion of Albuquerque Public Schools students – nearly one out of every five – many of the teachers and staff providing those services say they are feeling undervalued and overworked with “very low” morale. A 73-page survey report – commissioned by APS and the Albuquerque Teachers Federation union – details responses from 402 teachers and staff from special education departments across the district about their work lives. It’s a project that cost over $16,000, according to ATF President Ellen Bernstein, and had some revealing statistics, such as 45 percent of teachers and staff don’t feel APS’ special education department is an effectively managed and well-run department. … It’s not just too much paperwork that is impeding their work, the survey reports; “constant changes” in policies also make it hard for people to do their jobs well, according to 74 percent of responders. And it’s no secret from their supervisors, according to the survey, as 61 percent of the special education staff felt their immediate supervisor had a good understanding of that heavy workload. Only 33 percent felt those on the management and administrative level had a good grasp of the workload….
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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