Feb 17, 2019, Manchester (NH) Union Leader: Student behavior inspires plea for more special education spending in Nashua https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/student-behavior-inspires-plea-for-more-special-education-spending-in/article_f4038fc8-3c92-50b9-8393-5a7ec1d52969.html Citing poor behavior, the opioid epidemic and a growing number of deaf and special needs students, the school district’s special education director is asking for more staff even as her budget continues to shrink. “Behavior is such a huge issue in the district,” Marcia Bagley recently told the Board of Education. “We see more and more students experiencing trauma, and that trauma comes out in the way of behaviors — that is an issue.” The special education director wants about nine new positions filled in the district’s upcoming budget. “None of us have been trained to deal with what we are seeing in our classrooms daily,” Bagley said. “The opioid crisis is hitting hard and the students that we see are not the students that we went to school to teach.” She wants to hire two additional school psychologist interns, an additional para educator for the district-wide behavior specialist team, increase the hours for a board-certified behavior analyst to full-time and hire a para educator for Brentwood Academy. There are about 2,054 special education students throughout the district, of which about 1,632 are educated in a regular classroom setting, Bagley said. … In 2018 the school district spent about $14.1 million on special education and $12.7 million is in the 2019 budget. The 2020 budget as recommended by Superintendent Jahmal Mosley provides $12.2 million for special education.
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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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