Opposition Grows to Use of Restraint and Seclusion in Schools

Deb Bellare isn't sure when her son Sam's nightmares began, but remembers it as sometime in 2006.

Sam Bellare and his mother Deb.

That was the year Bellare's breast cancer developed, the year of her mastectomy and chemotherapy treatments. It was also the year Sam, who has autism, turned 6.

And it was the year Bellare first learned Greece Central School District employees, coping with Sam's destructive physical and emotional outbursts, would sometimes pin her first-grader to the floor before whisking him off to a tiny "quiet room" to scream himself into exhaustion.

"I was sick, I wasn't paying attention and I didn't know any better. I thought they were doing the right thing," said Bellare.

Special Needs and the Vocational Dream

Young Emilio wants to grow up to be a firefighter. Little Emma wants to be a teacher. How do we know? Because we ask them. We prepare them. We push them. We guide them. Is it assumed differently for a child with autism or a child with intellectual disabilities or even multiple disabilities? If those with severe disabilities are capable and only require society to think out of the box, seems the world could make a place for a willing heart.
An intriguing research article coming out in the August 2011 issue of Intellectual & Development Disabilities looks at what is being done to enable the vocational dreams of some special needs kids. Parents need to be girded with facts and data to help them partner early on with educators, counselors, and employers to moving more severely disabled children closer to finding their life's work.

Feds Cite D.C., Others for Special Ed Woes

For five years running, the District of Columbia has failed to uphold parts of the federal law that governs the education of students with disabilities, according to the federal Department of Education's ratings of the district and other states and territories.
In particular, the district can't seem to get a handle on evaluating and re-evaluating students identified as having disabilities, a problem that is more than a decade old.
(The findings about each state are delayed by a year, so the most recent ratings of whether states are upholding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act reflect the 2009-10 school year.)

Feds Order Oregon to Boost Special Education Funding or Face Sanctions

SALEM, Ore. -- The U.S. Department of Education has denied Oregon's request to reduce special education funding in light of budget cuts and will cut more than $15 million federal funding to schools if the state doesn't reverse course.
States lose federal special education money if they lower their contribution to those programs without a waiver. Oregon Department of Education officials sought the federal waiver, saying the state faced declining revenue projections throughout the summer, forcing the department to reduce the amount of money supporting special education programs.