Nov 8, 2018, Wicked Local Marblehead (MA): Marblehead School’s Special Education Dept. seeing red http://marblehead.wickedlocal.com/news/20181107/marblehead-schools-special-education-dept-seeing-red Out of district tuition costs trigger a $755,000 deficit It is only 10 weeks into the school year and officials have already frozen the budget as a result of soaring special education out of district tuition costs. … An increase in tuition costs coupled with a jump in the number of out of district placements is what is driving the expenses. Maniaci said the rise in out of district placements could be attributed to several things including an increase in behavioral and mental health issues and new families moving into the district…. Maniaci said she’s received several calls from other school business managers looking for advice on how to create similar funds in their communities. She called the School Department is lucky that town finance officials worked with them to find a creative solution to a problem that’s plaguing school districts across the commonwealth. “Everybody is dealing with this, everybody,” she said adding, “And we’ll continue to work with the town Finance Department and town committee to figure out how to fund this.”
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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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