Feb 20, 2019, Meriden, CT, My Record Journal: Connecticut lawmakers concerned about services for young adults with autism http://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/State/Lawmakers-concerned-about-services-for-young-adults-with-autism.html The General Assembly is considering several bills aimed at improving services for people with autism as they leave school and enter early adulthood. A 2017 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that nearly 500,000 students with autism nationwide will be leaving schools next year, and local advocates warn Connecticut isn’t ready for the transition. “Folks are aging out of our school systems at an alarming rate,” said Leslie Simoes, executive director of the Autism Spectrum Resource Center of Connecticut, which is located in Wallingford. “Connecticut spends a ton of money in special education in the school systems, but at 21, (people with autism) sit at home, doing nothing, isolated.” One bill would mandate school districts provide special education services to age 21, or when the student graduates high school. Other proposals include allowing school districts to begin transitional services for students at age 14, down from 16, and tax incentives for employers to hire individuals with autism. … ARC of Connecticut wrote to the Public Safety Committee. She said the “substantial rise in the overall number of individuals who have ASD (autism spectrum disorder)” make the training “essential” for emergency personnel. While autism diagnoses continue to rise, Abercrombie agreed that the bigger problem is the pending spike in the number of students with autism becoming too old for school-based programs. …
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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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