Feb 24, 2020, Disability Scoop: Ed Department: More Students Being Served Under IDEA https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2020/02/24/ed-department-more-students-being-served-under-idea/27864/ The number of American schoolchildren receiving special education services is on the rise and they’re increasingly being served in mainstream classrooms at least part of the day. More than 6.1 million students across the country ages 6 to 21 — or 9.2 percent of all kids — were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s up from 8.6 percent of children in 2008. The figures come from a report to Congress issued this month by the U.S. Department of Education. The agency is required to report annually on its progress implementing IDEA. Among students in special education in 2017, the largest group — 38.2 percent — had a diagnosis of specific learning disability followed by speech or language impairment, other health impairment, autism and intellectual disability. The percentage of students identified as having autism rose gradually between 2008 and 2017 across all age groups, the report found. However, the growth was most striking for those ages 18 to 21 who saw more than a 160 percent increase in diagnoses over the time period.
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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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