May 9, 2018, ABC9, Cedar Rapids, IA: I9 UPDATE: (VIDEO) Iowa schools' use of seclusion, restraint has nearly doubled since 2013 http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/I9-UPDATE-Iowa-schools-use-of-seclusion-restraint-up---482213951.html Schools in eastern Iowa are increasingly using restraints on students and isolating them in seclusion rooms. That is according to new data published by the U.S. Department of Education. … School districts are required to report how often they use seclusion rooms or restraints to the U.S. Department of Education. The agency has now posted 2015 data. I9 dug through the numbers in 23 school districts in eastern Iowa and found there were a combined 4,904 instances of seclusion and restraint. That is 27 instances per school day. The new numbers nearly double the 2,514 instances reported in 2013. There were in all 4,904 instances documented in 2015. Iowa City had the highest usage jumping from 797 instances in 2013 to more than 1,700. This data came before the state admonished the district for over-using the rooms. Iowa City has since announced efforts to reduce seclusion room use. Cedar Rapids reported 1,207 instances of seclusion or restraint. Waterloo saw its use of seclusion rooms jump from 30 in 2013 to 811 in 2015. Dubuque was an exception, using seclusion 479 times in 2015 which is down from 947 in 2013. College Community also saw a slight drop, from 418 to 361, while Linn-Mar schools use jumped from 35 times to 236. 88% of instances of restraint or seclusion involved students with disabilities. There are questions about the accuracy of that data. Last year, I9 found Cedar Rapids had wrongly reported zero instances of seclusion room use in 2013. The district blamed that on a clerical error. This time, the district still under reported to the federal government by 41. …
top of page
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
bottom of page