Mar 12, 2019, Education Week: Helena, MT—Officials want to change how to identify autistic students https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/03/11/officials-want-to-change-how-to_ap.html Montana education officials want to change the criteria for identifying children with autism by creating a checklist of characteristics, a proposal that disability rights advocates say would lead to a drastic reduction of educational services to autistic children. The changes proposed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen would require that students show 14 of 30 characteristics to qualify as having autism. Examples include "does not use gestures for communication" and "does not initiate or maintain eye contact while interacting with others." The checklist was developed because the current criteria were established nearly two decades ago and don't reflect new knowledge, state Office of Public Instruction officials said. "The sole reason for the change is to better identify students with autism using modern research and knowledge," said Doug Doty, the agency's Autism Education Project statewide coordinator. "We all work to make life better for kids, not to reduce services."… Disability Rights Montana attorney Tal Goldin said no other state has such a checklist. Montana's plan is not based on science and would create the most restrictive system in the nation for identifying a child with autism, he said…. Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, schools are required to prepare individualized education programs for children identified with autism. The plans assess the students' abilities and needs, set goals and aim to modify behavior. If the new criteria is adopted by the state Office of Public Instruction after a public hearing, the immediate effect would be a drop in the number of children with autism who are coming into the school system requiring individual plans, Goldin said. …
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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.
Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
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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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