Feb 7, 2019, CTV News: Special needs student urged to stay home amid educational assistant shortage https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/special-needs-student-urged-to-stay-home-amid-educational-assistant-shortage-1.4286135 The mother of a Grade 1 special needs student at View Royal Elementary says she was stunned when the school asked her to keep her son home last Thursday. "I was shocked," said Cristina Gage, …whose son Lincoln has autism. "I got a phone call Thursday morning, we were on our way out the door making Lincoln's lunch, asking him to keep him home for the day. They were short three or four EAs so he didn't have the extra support so they asked if we can keep him home." She sent her son anyway, but said the school is not to blame. 'It's extremely rare': Lack of substitute teachers has Sooke superintendent filling in... "They’re doing the best they can with what they’re given," Gage said. The reason for the request was a lack of educational assistants, and Gage said hers isn’t the only family affected. Jen Wark has two autistic children at View Royal Elementary, and said while she’s never been asked to keep her kids home, the consistency of care is a concern…. A 2016 Supreme Court of Canada ruling reduced class sizes, meaning more space, more teachers and more educational assistants in B.C. classrooms. Filling the number of positions with qualified people is the challenge. School District 61 Superintendent Shelley Green said asking parents to keep special needs kids at home is a last resort. … "School District 61 has very successfully hired new educational assistants. I think 35 since November," he said. …
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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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