Aug 10, 2018, Baltimore Sun: More classrooms for students with autism remains top Harford schools priority http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aegis/ph-ag-autism-classrooms-0810-story.html Placing additional classrooms tailored for students with autism in more schools continues to be the top capital budget priority of Harford County Public Schools. The proposed HCPS Capital Improvement Plan for 2020 calls for locating two STRIVE program classrooms for elementary students with autism at William S. James Elementary School in Abingdon and two classrooms for high school students at C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air. The estimated cost of the four classroom modifications and related bathroom, changing and sensory facilities, is $1,042,000, according to the proposed CIP, which was submitted to the Board of Education for its review on July 23. In the current capital plan, however, $200,000 was earmarked, so the additional funding needed for the classrooms and related facilities is $842,000. In addition to the STRIVE classrooms, four additional special education buses will be acquired to transport students to the new facilities. … “Currently in Harford County, autism classrooms for elementary and middle school students are at capacity,” states the 2020 CIP. “Based on the projected growth, there is a need to modify additional classrooms to accommodate the special needs and anticipated growth of these students.” Board members were told at July’s meeting that more facilities will be needed in the future for students in the autism spectrum and that federal and state mandates could change at any time to require additional accommodations for these students. By building these facilities, HCPS potentially saves money by not having to send some students to expensive private instructional services, while also integrating more of them into the local school environment, Dr. Susan Austin, HCPS director of special education, said. “It’s amazing,” she said of what has been an ongoing, “collaborative effort” among the school system, parents, students and the community to make more facilities available locally for students with autism. While estimates weren’t available on the number of students with autism HCPS expects to serve in its schools during the next school year, school officials said last year that there were approximately 50 elementary, 12 middle and 12 high school students using existing autism classrooms in the 2017-18 school year. … “I worry what will happen to our public schools in Harford County,” board member Thomas Fitzpatrick said about the decline in state funding support for school construction and, particularly, repair and renovation. Fitzpatrick urged the public to “keep informed” about financial support for the schools coming from Annapolis and the trend to provide less and less, which he called “worrisome.”
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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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