June 29, 2018, Dover, DE, Dorchester Banner: School nurses facing challenging times https://www.dorchesterbanner.com/education/school-nurses-facing-challenging-times/ Dorchester Cty, MA: “A lot of people think we just give out pills, but that’s not true,” School Health Program Supervisor Carolyn Hallowell, RN said June 19. Ms. Hallowell was speaking to the members of the Dorchester County Council, asking the commissioners to provide as much support as they could to the increasingly complex tasks performed by school nurses…. Her program’s annual budget is $744,777, most of which comes from the Board of Education, with $143,940 from the council. In her 15 years in her post, Ms. Hallowell said, “The needs of Dorchester County school children have grown.” For example, in 2010, there were 59,686 health room visits in the 11 public schools. That number climbed to 81,170 last year. Though a person might picture bandages going on scraped knees, there’s more to it. Ms. Hallowell acknowledged that injuries and illnesses are treated in the nurses’ offices and the wellness centers in four schools, but there are also a wide variety of needs to be met, including head lice, incontinence, tube feedings, diabetes issues and more. “We have a nurse giving meds every day,” County Health Officer Roger Harrell said. In fact, medicine was dispensed 27,924 times last year in Dorchester schools…. In the past, one nurse could often cover two schools. Now, though, with the increased work load, it’s pretty much one for each – 12 nurses now serve Dorchester children….
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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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