Sept 5, 2019, Carroll County (MD) Times: With behavior referrals on rise in Carroll elementary schools, task force presents findings, recommendations https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/education/cc-elementary-behavior-task-force-20190905-czxkkb4hcng5jf5edpx34wg2gq-story.html The number of major behavior referrals in Carroll County elementary schools increased by 79 percent in four years according to statistics the Elementary Behavior Task Force presented to the Board of Education on Wednesday evening. The task force, formed by Carroll County Public Schools, found that major referrals for behavior have not only increased markedly, but a small group of students are showing behavior concerns more frequently and with greater intensity. Students in poverty and students in special education programs were demographics of concern for focusing resources, the task force told the Board. “The committee’s recommendations primarily focus on students with intense needs, while enhancing overall behavioral supports,” they said in the presentation. They made four recommendations. The first was focusing on direct services through behavioral and mental health staffing and smaller class sizes if possible. The second was pointing out the importance of professional development for teachers to gain behavioral, mental health and cultural proficiency training. For the third recommendation, the committee pointed out the importance of family support. One suggestion was to continue referring families to community services and programs. The fourth focus was on classroom instruction and the inclusion of social emotional learning as part of elementary school learning…. Muniz said they believed some of the uptick was due to more reporting and not necessarily more behavior incidents…. Board of Education President Donna Sivigny said after the presentation that the findings supported the school system’s desire to budget for more positions in the schools. In the first budget proposal made by Superintendent Steve Lockard to the county for financial year 2020, the school system proposed adding 29 new positions, some of which included special education resource teachers, elementary school academic specialists, school psychiatrists and intervention specialists. These were removed from the budget before it passed. Board member Marsha Herbert said she had been stunned by the cost of 29 new positions in the budget proposal, but felt the best course going forward is that, “we need to chisel away at that year after year.”… The Elementary Behavior Task Force was formed in the summer of 2018 because of anecdotal evidence that there were more behavioral problems of a serious nature occurring in the elementary schools. The system considered re-purposing some teaching positions as behavioral specialists, but wanted the task force to consider whether the data supported that action….
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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.
Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
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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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