Aug 18, 2018, Roanoke (VA) Times: New autism school planned to replace former Roanoke grocery store https://www.roanoke.com/news/education/new-autism-school-planned-to-replace-former-roanoke-grocery-store/article_0e8fcb1e-6f82-5b35-b096-77a943ec24c3.html A new school for students with autism is on track to open in an old grocery store building in southeast Roanoke…. Centra’s motivation for a second Rivermont school in Roanoke is based on a perceived need for more room for its autism program in the region…. About one in 59 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control data. Rivermont’s present Roanoke school serves students with special needs between the ages of 2 to 22, including those with autism. The new school would be exclusively for students on the autism spectrum. Collette said having eight classrooms is the long-term goal for the school, with individualized support for each student. Each classroom would have no more than eight students. “Sometimes our kids have one-to-one support, sometimes it’s two-to-one or three-to-one. We try to maintain a ratio of six adults to eight students. But it always depends on the needs of the child,” she 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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