Aug 10, 2018, Maine Biz: Developers Collaborative completes $3M school rehab http://www.mainebiz.biz/article/20180810/NEWS01/180819993 Children's Odyssey, a program for children of varied developmental levels, will move into a newly renovated location at the former Thomas B. Reed School at 19 Libby St. in Portland this fall. Developers Collaborative, which led the $3 million renovation, along with the nonprofit, introduced the new site at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday. Co-Director Laura Glover told Mainebiz the plans are to reopen Children's Odyssey at Reed on Sept. 5…. Children's Odyssey started with 10 children and four teachers and is now up to 24 teachers, with 68 children enrolled in multiple programs. The new, 16,500-square-foot space will have capacity to expand to 150 students. Glover said they started looking for larger quarters about 10 years ago. "We had outgrown our space," she said. … "Our funding sources are from the state Department of Education and MaineCare, and with reimbursement rate freezes and budget cuts, it's always very tight," she said…. The need for Children's Odyssey's services is growing, said Glover. "It's challenging to find the financial means to grow, even though the need is there," she said. … The majority of children in Children's Odyssey's care demonstrate one or more educational or medical disabilities of varying degree and etiology to include but not limited to, autism, cerebral palsy, behavioral and emotional disorders, attention deficit disorder, hearing or visual impairment, Down syndrome, failure to thrive, feeding and swallowing disorders, chronic lung disease and seizure disorders. …
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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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