Mar 16, 2019, Minnesota Post Bulletin: Special ed teachers customize coursework https://www.postbulletin.com/news/education/special-ed-teachers-customize-coursework/article_620589c6-4685-11e9-ae2e-ef1c7547cfff.html Tammy French, an autism special education teacher at Bishop Elementary School, put blue filters on the overhead florescent lights in her classroom. Her students are sensitive to light, she said. A small table is placed to discourage running in the space. Everything in the classroom is curated to help her teach her class of six kindergarten through second-grade students with severe autism. … Half of French’s students are nonverbal. … On Thursday, French checked with paraprofessional Marion Fosdick on how a particular student responded during the day and planned for Friday. … Each intensive special education classroom has at least one paraprofessional assisting the teachers and working directly with students. … Students with such intensive needs spend 60 percent or more of their school day in a special education setting. Minnesota guidelines mandate a maximum class size of six students, which means a higher cost per pupil for such special education classes. “Any time you drop capacity, it increases cost,” said John Carlson, Rochester Public Schools executive director of finance. Special education services are mandated and school districts receive funding specifically for special education programs. However, that funding has fallen short of actual district costs. As special education services grow, the gap has widened.
top of page
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
Search
bottom of page