Oct 1, 2018, (Suburban) Chicago Herald: District 300 board approves spending plan including 104 new employees https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20181001/district-300-board-approves-spending-plan-including-104-new-employees This school year, Community Unit District 300 has hired more teachers, social workers, coaches, interventionists and support personnel with new state revenue, officials said. The school board recently approved a $296 million spending plan for the 2018-19 school year that includes hiring 104 new full-time employees with $6.2 million from the state's new evidence-based funding formula. New hires were made in areas that have the greatest impact on student learning, said Susan Harkin, chief operating officer of the Algonquin-based district serving more than 21,000 students. They include 13 special education teachers, 10 special education paraprofessionals, 10 coaches and 8.5 additional social workers. Social workers will float throughout schools working one-on-one with students and families and serving as liaisons between the district and outside agencies….
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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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