June 13, 2018, LoHod.com (NY): Mount Vernon schools to overhaul special ed department per court agreement https://www.lohud.com/story/news/education/2018/06/13/mount-vernon-overhaul-special-education-court-agreement/697444002/ The city school district has agreed to hire a monitor and make sweeping changes to its special education department, according to a settlement that has ended a five-year legal battle started by several families of children with special needs. The federal civil lawsuit was filed in May 2013 on behalf of eight Mount Vernon students ages 7 to 19 — identified in court documents by their initials — who claimed they were denied education and services for their disabilities because of “systemic deficiencies” that were essentially ignored by district and state officials…. There are about 100 goals and actions the district has to accomplish, according to the settlement. They include fixing procedures to identify students with special needs, training teachers and staff, involving parents more in their children’s education plans, measuring student progress better, reorganizing the special education department, and addressing suspension rates among students with disabilities…. As the city's student population dropped in recent years, the number of kids requiring disability services has increased. In 2006-07, there were nearly 12,500 students in the district, of which 1,356 or 11 percent had disabilities. A decade later, there are about 7,800 students, of which 18 percent, or 1,426, have been identified as having disabilities, according to state data….
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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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