June 3, 2019, Columbus (GA) Ledger-Inquirer: MCSD board votes on $17 million contract for new special-education options https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article231113428.html Two years after a split Muscogee County School Board rejected the superintendent’s controversial recommendation to hire a for-profit company to provide special-education services, the board has approved a less-extensive contract with a different for-profit company to address the same persistent problem. During a called meeting Monday evening, the board voted 8-0-1 in favor of spending $17 million over three years for a continuum of services provded by ChanceLight Behavioral Health, Therapy and Education of Nashville, Tennessee, a proposal the Ledger-Enquirer first reported on in February…. “This is a collaboration,” said Chambers, a former teacher. “Our Muscogee County School District teachers are still involved in educating our students, and then ChanceLight comes in and provides a wraparound service. Teachers are trained to teach reading, writing and arithmetic, and when it gets over that boundary into mental health issues and issues that deal with behavior, those things aren’t taught in the teacher program, when teachers are going through school. … ChanceLight, which has been operating for 20 years, serves nearly 19,000 clients and students each year with nearly 3,000 employees at more than 150 locations in more than 20 states, generating about $134 million in annual revenue, according to its website…. The proposed $5,670,000 annual contract with ChanceLight isn’t the all-encompassing plan for $6.4 million per year that was in the 2017 recommendation to hire Camelot Education. This new proposal covers only students with disabilities who exhibit extreme behavioral skill deficits. The students without a diagnosed disability but with severe discipline problems would remain in the AIM Alternative School at the Marshall Success Center. Students in the Behavior Supports Program would have diagnoses that may include bipolar disorder, attention deficit, attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity, oppositional defiant disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, personality disorder or reactive attachment disorder, or they may be victims of abuse or neglect. … MCSD’s proposal to hire ChanceLight also comprises $170,200 in startup costs, including renovations at Marshall, and an additional $116,042 in unbudgeted staffing cost for a lead board-certified behavior analyst’s salary and benefits. The school district already has Behavior Supports Program positions for 14 teachers ($919,968 in salaries and benefits), 20 paraprofessionals ($1,019,312), one program manager ($133,587) and two board-certified behavior analysts ($107,336).
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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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