June 30, 2017, Chicago Tribune: Niles Township special ed district plans for increase in satellite classes next year http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-skr-school-district-68-special-education-program-tl-0629-2-20170630-story.html
When school begins this August at Skokie School District 68, the district will be home to four satellite special education classes, double the number it had only a couple years ago, educators say.
Other districts tell a similar story. Skokie School District 73.5 is scheduled to host five satellite classes next year, up from just one in 2016-17, which is possible because of a building expansion at Elizabeth Meyer School.
Last year, District 68 increased the number of NTDSE special education satellite classes from two to three and next year it will add one more, said District 68 Director of Special Services Peg Lasiewicki.
"We're definitely seeing an increase in the program," she said.
Next year, Kendrick said, NTDSE satellite classes are scheduled to increase from 12 to 17 throughout the township. In addition to the one added class at District 68 and the four at District 73.5 because of the Meyer expansion, Morton Grove's Golf School District 67 is scheduled to pick up a class as well.
Nine school districts in Niles Township form a co-op that make up NTDSE, Kendrick said. Niles Township High School District 219 is not part of the group, having decided to go on its own for special education several years ago.
According to Kendrick, the number of children with special education needs who come through the district has ebbed and flowed over the years, but now is definitely a time of flow.
For whatever reason, she said, there has been a spike in children with intellectual and other "low incidence disabilities," those that occur less frequently in the general population than others. The special education district has also seen more students with autism in recent years, 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.)
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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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