Nov 9, 2018, Westminster, MD, Carroll County Times: Carroll County schools appoint mental health coordinator as part of Maryland Safe to Learn Act https://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/education/cc-mental-health-coordinator-amy-jagoda-20181108-story.html The Carroll County Public Schools Board of Education approved the appointment of a mental health coordinator, a position that came out of the Maryland Safe to Learn Act, and will be funded through grants from the state in its first year. The school board unanimously approved the appointment of Amy Jagoda, a current 12-month school psychologist in CCPS, to the position. … During last year’s legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly moved forward with the Maryland Safe to Learn Act, which, while dealing with school resource officers, also has a strong focus on mental health help for students. Falls told the Times in November that the law requires each school to have a coordinator of mental health services, something Kim Muniz, the supervisor of school psychology, and Judy Klinger, the supervisor of school counseling, had been sharing the responsibilities of. “It’s a really exciting position,” Jagoda said. In this job, she said, she is responsible for ensuring students who need mental health services. “It’s a pretty lofty responsibility. We have a lot of kids with a lot of needs,” she said. Jagoda said through this position, she will not only work with other mental health providers in the schools, but also with outside agencies. Her new job will coordinate all of the links they have in place now and strengthen them, she added…. Jagoda said helping these students has always been an interest of hers. As a school psychologist, she said, she works with many of the school system’s neediest kids, especially those in the PRIDE program, who are dealing with severe social, emotional and behavioral concerns. “They need a lot of support and they need wrap around services,” she 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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