Aug 5, 2018, Sauk Valley (IL) Media: Breathe easy. Law lets Illinois schools keep emergency asthma inhalers on hand http://www.saukvalley.com/2018/08/05/breathe-easy-law-lets-illinois-schools-keep-emergency-asthma-inhalers-on-hand/atkoqtl/ A new law will allow school nurses to keep backup asthma inhalers on hand for kids to use on the off chance that forgetful youths don’t have theirs with them when they have an asthma attack. The legislation, signed Friday by Gov. Bruce Rauner and sponsored by state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, lets nurses and other school personnel administer asthma medication registered in the name of the school. It mirrors similar laws allowing the same proc edure for EpiPens…. Some 13.6 percent of Illinois children – one in eight – have asthma, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, and it’s one of the top causes of absenteeism from school. ———
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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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