Aug 13, 2018, Community Impact Newspaper, Austin, TX: Austin ISD continues to seek funding to maintain middle and high school mental health centers https://communityimpact.com/austin/southwest-austin/education/2018/08/13/austin-isd-continues-to-seek-funding-to-maintain-middle-and-high-school-mental-health-centers/ Austin ISD is about $1.7 million short of being able to maintain its mental health centers at the 16 middle and high school campuses that had the services last year, according to a conversation Superintendent Paul Cruz had with the board of trustees at Monday’s board workshop. Austin ISD mental health centers are spaces on school campuses where licensed mental health therapist can meet with students, teachers and parents to address a child’s emotional needs. Integral Care, an Austin-based counseling and mental health service that operates some of the district’s centers, has committed to provide $300,000 for the services this year, Cruz said. AISD has also asked the Central Health board for $420,000 to support the centers, which would be voted on by Central Health by the end of September, he said. Even with the support of Central Health and Integral Care, funding will be approximately $640,000 short of expected costs…. In June, AISD approved a new agreement with Seton Family of Hospitals to provide student health services, but funding for the mental health centers was not included, according to board documents. While not discussed at Monday’s workshop, the district has also opened 22 elementary school mental health centers that are funded through a $4.5 million Victims of Crime Act grant was awarded in fall 2017.
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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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