Dec 8, 2018, NorthJersey.com: Paterson schools report progress on special ed backlog https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/paterson-press/2018/12/08/paterson-nj-schools-report-progress-special-ed-backlog/2239414002/ The city school district says it reduced its massive backlog of special education services by providing students with 6,468 hours of speech therapy services during the past 10 months. But the district still owes about 1,600 students another 28,647 hours of speech therapy that they were supposed to receive during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years, officials said. … “Those challenges can be exacerbated by the sheer volume of students who need the services, and the scarcity of education professions qualified to provide the services,” said the district in a press release issued this week about the progress made on the backlog. “We are doing everything possible to provide students with the services they need,” said the district’s Chief of Special Education, Cheryl Coy. In an effort to address the backlog, the district this year hired 20 additional speech therapists, raising the total number on the payroll to 48. The district also will be offering Saturday speech therapy sessions starting next month, officials 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.
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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