Mar 27, 2017, NorthJersey.com: Lakeland HS budget cuts to offset $1.7M special ed hike http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/passaic/wanaque/2017/03/27/lakeland-hs-budget-cuts-offset-17m-special-ed-hike/99592926/ A $25 million Lakeland Regional High School budget was introduced last week with a 2.81 percent tax levy increase for Ringwood and Wanaque residents. … Due to a $1.7 million increase in special education costs this year, the district must find $1 million to cut in the budget between now and April 25, Davenport said. The $1 million represents 4 percent of the overall budget. … Beattie said the special education costs are due to an increase in the number of students and also the growing tuition charged by private facility schools for out of district placements. He noted the tuition costs aren't capped in these situations that involve the needs of certain special needs students for whom Lakeland does not have programs. "We do have a great in-house program but there are some situations where we need to deal with out of district placements and we have no control over their costs," Beattie said. "It's not that we send a large number of students out of district; it's that the tuition is very high for the few students that we do send out of district."
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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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