Nov 13, 2018, WFUV, Public Media Radio, Fordham U. , Bronx, NY: Teacher Shortage Impacts Success of Special Needs Children http://www.wfuv.org/content/teacher-shortage-impact-school-success-special-needs About 20 percent of children in New York City public schools have disabilities, including autism. As part of WFUV's Strike A Chord series, we took a look at educational concerns for these kids. … Amanda Friedman is the founder and Executive Director of the Atlas Foundation for Autism. She also runs a school for kids with autism. She says it can be a challenge for public schools to accommodate students with special needs because they simply lack capacity…. Jeanne Alter of the Kennedy Children Center, says kids with special needs thrive in smaller classrooms. There are 16 classes at the center. Each class has one teacher and two teacher assistants. But Alter is worried about the future. She says the nation is experiencing a teacher shortage. And she fears there won't be enough teachers to educate kids with special needs. … Alter says low salaries for teachers are a stumbling block to filling critical roles in the classroom. She says she'll continue to fight for fair wages to ensure kids with special needs have the support they need.
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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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