July 3, 2018, Buffalo (NY) News: Mental health education now required in New York schools https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/03/mental-health-education-now-required-in-ny-schools/ All elementary, middle and high schools across New York State now will be required to teach about mental health, under a new law that took effect this month. Billed as the first of its kind in the nation, the legislation was signed into law in 2016, after years of lobbying by the Mental Health Association in New York State…. About one in five adults in the U.S. lives with a mental illness. Roughly half of chronic mental health conditions start by age 14. Half of anxiety disorders begin as early as 8. More than one-fifth of teenagers age 13 to 18 experience serious mental illness each year. … While the law requires schools to provide mental health education, it does not mandate a specific curriculum. That’s why the Mental Health Association in New York State, which focuses on mental health advocacy and programming, is preparing to launch a resource and training center to help schools prepare for the upcoming school year….
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
bottom of page