Dec 26, 2018, (VA) Bacon’s Rebellion: Lawsuits, Fiscal Stress and the Autism Epidemic https://www.baconsrebellion.com/ Gregory “Junior” Matthews, Jr., 16, has been diagnosed with severe autism. He is nonverbal and classified as disabled. Providing for his education is very expensive. His parents, who until recently lived in Henrico County, sought to send him to the Faison Center, which specializes in educating children with severe autism. But Henrico County balked at the cost — about $23,000 annually, covering about one-third of the tuition. The state covers the rest. The Henrico County School Board filed a lawsuit February to overturn a hearing officer’s decision that the county had not been meeting the boy’s needs and should pay to send him to a private school that could. Now a federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. School officials argued that the school had made progress working with young Matthews. But his parents, assisted by special education advocate Kandise Lucas, insisted that the special education arrangements were inadequate. … The RTD article touches upon the financial stakes involved for the Henrico County school system, which mirrors the challenges faced by school districts across Virginia. The county spent nearly $1 million last year handling special education disputes, ten times the sum spent in fiscal 2015. Concerned about the rising cost, the county hired an additional county attorney at the cost of $90,000 annually to focus on special education. The incidence of autism is increasing nationally, and it’s putting both families and school systems under increasing financial strain. … …At the same time, Henrico is struggling to pay for the increasing number of children with disabilities. In fiscal 2016, Henrico reported 6,563 students with disabilities, including 763 with autism. That’s up from 5,935 students with disabilities in 2001 and only 159 with autism….
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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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