Aug 22, 2019, Palm Springs (CA) Desert Sun: Helping valley students manage behavior is no longer just a job for special education, teachers say https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/education/2019/08/22/managing-student-behavior-no-longer-just-job-special-education/2055377001/ School districts across the Coachella Valley say improving students' behavior and mental health will no longer just be a job for special education teachers. During the past several years, the Coachella Valley's three school districts have implemented "multi-tiered systems of support" to address negative student behaviors before automatically referring students to special education programs that can be costly and restrictive for learning…. Almazan said in the first year of implementing the support systems, the 577-student school saw fewer disciplinary referrals and overall positive changes to the campus culture. She's hopeful the framework will work at the district's 20 other schools. Administrators and teachers at Coachella Valley Unified have been pushing the multi-tiered approach as a remedy to reduce unnecessary referrals to special education. In the past five years, overall enrollment declined at Coachella Valley schools while the special education population grew The inverse trend has strained district budgets that receive funding for special education from the state and federal government based on their overall enrollment. That means special education funding can shrink while the need increases. Across the state, school districts are struggling with a growing population of students participating in special education services, amidst a shrinking overall enrollment, which determines funding for students with disabilities. This year, the Desert Sands Unified School District will launch a five-year plan to fully standardize the multi-tiered approach by the 2023-2024 school year.
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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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