Feb 12, 2019, Louisville Courier Journal: JCPS one step closer to adding mental health counselors to every school https://www.courierjournal.com/story/news/education/2019/02/12/jcps-board-approves-mental-health-counselors-schools/2847961002/ Jefferson County Public Schools is one step closer to providing each of its students with access to a mental health counselor starting next school year — a $3 million investment the district hopes will ultimately boost student achievement. … JCPS plans to hire a dedicated mental health practitioner for each of its middle and high schools. Elementary schools identified by JCPS as needing to make accelerated improvements will also have dedicated counselors. All other elementary schools would have counselors on a part-time basis, with two schools sharing one counselor. … The new positions will also be responsible for counseling special education students, a legally required service that the district has not regularly provided, according to a report issued this month by the Kentucky Department of Education. JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio has said the new positions are necessary to support a student population increasingly affected by traumatic events at home and in the community.
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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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