Testing Day Reveals Different Story

Briana began the school year reading at “level E,” where a first grader should be in September. By November, she had progressed to “level G.” At the end of the year she reached “level J,” the benchmark for a second grader.Briana achieved a year’s worth of progress for a year’s worth of teaching, and increased her confidence along the way. But her test results told a different story.You see, Briana is not a first grader. She is a third-grade student with a learning disability.

Opinion: Need to Fill Service Gaps for Young Adults with Autism

An important read by Valerie Paradiz, Executive Director, Autistic Global Initiative, on the importance of measuring outcomes as our field evolves. She has presented at YAI's conference in the past. We need to ensure there's a better transition for young adults and it needs to start earlier.

I am the mother of Elijah, a 25-year-old young man on the autism spectrum. When he received his diagnosis at age 4, following two years of terrifying seizures, I was teaching German literature at Bard College in New York. I loved being a professor, but when Elijah’s struggles began to have a greater impact on his and my daily life, I chose to switch careers and concentrate on education and advocacy — for him, and also for other children with autism.

During Elijah’s time in school, I saw gaps in knowledge and help for those on the spectrum. Although my focus at the time was on children, the lack of services has persisted, undermining a whole generation of youth with autism through their school years and into young adulthood.This topic is of urgent importance: An estimated half million young Americans with autism will make the transition to adulthood over the next decade. A report released in April captures the story of this overlooked generation in hard numbers.

Feds Invest in Special Educators

With an eye on improving services for students with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education is funneling millions into programs to train new special educators.

The Education Department said this week that it is granting $12.8 million to university programs coast to coast to address anticipated shortages in the field.

After Losing Autism Diagnosis, Study Finds Need for Educational Support

A study examining children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder whose social and cognitive symptoms had resolved 4 years later has found that most continued to have emotional and behavioral symptoms that required special educational support.
The research, presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Diego, CA, aimed to investigate whether any deficits remained after the resolution of early symptoms to the extent that children no longer met the criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Asking Children with Special Needs to Clear the Same Bar

Jackson Ellis will soon head to fourth grade. Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, he's been receiving publicly funded services since he was 15 months old. Jackson's mother, Rebecca Ellis, a single parent, has made education advocacy her career. She's fighting to make sure her son gets the help he needs at his Mandeville, Louisiana public school. That's always been an uphill battle. But, since the state adopted the Common Core State Standards, Ellis says, it's become even harder.

"There's always been a gap — academically, socially — between what he could do and other kids could do," she says. "When the standards changed, the gap grew into this canyon overnight."

Opinion: It's Not About Cost; It's About Need

This letter is by Julie Cunningham, LICSW, who is the executive director of Families First Vermont. She sent it to Gov. Peter Shumlin, Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Peter Welch. It pretty much could apply to any resident of any state who is concerned about cuts in services.
 
Dec. 17, 2012
Dear Gov. Shumlin,
Like you, I have been watching the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., and trying to comprehend how society has become completely unsafe for our children. I know that you have dedicated much time and energy to thinking about Vermont’s youth, and that you are invested in doing what you can to avoid a similar catastrophe in our state. Since our mental health and developmental services system have been undergoing major systems changes, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts about our shared concerns for our future.
As a community-based social worker for 25 years and for the past 13 years as director of a specialized service agency, I have worked closely with hundreds of families who are struggling with a child with a mental illness or a disability. I have noticed, over time, a steady decrease in services that are available for children — most notably in special education — but also in agency programming. Most families come into services at a crisis point. Prevention and outreach are non-existent. IEP and Coordinated Service Plan meetings are often uncomfortable, even excruciating, as service providers do not have enough funding to meet the needs presented. A child under the age of 19 who has a developmental disability can only receive a Medicaid (Developmental Services) waiver if there are repeated hospitalizations or the child is in DCF custody. We are a reactive system, and unfortunately our recent conversations about upcoming changes promise more of the same.

Report: NYS Defies Charter School Trend of Under-Enrolling Special-Needs Students

A fresh examination of special education enrollment patterns in New York State suggests that charter schools may be doing better at enrolling students with special needs than many believe.
These findings are relevant for Washington state as policy makers consider how to best implement Initiative 1240 to allow charter schools, which appears to have been approved by voters in the most recent election.
The issue of charter schools and special-needs students arises in part from a federal report that said, at the national level, charter schools enroll fewer students than schools run by districts.

Evaluating Teachers on Student Test Scores Hurts Children the Most

In this guest editorial from The Washington Times, teacher Eileen Riley-Hall, author of Parenting Girls on the Autism Spectrum, writes about how evaluating teachers based on students' test scores hurts children.

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- My daughter Caroline is a bright, sweet, inquisitive thirteen year-old. She also has autism. Over the past seven years of school, Caroline has made amazing progress because she always been included in the general education classroom with the help of a 1:1 aide. In fifth grade she won the spelling bee for her grade. In seventh grade she won a science award. Now, in eighth grade she is learning algebra. For the past three years, she has participated in the school band, playing her very own purple trumpet. Caroline has also made friends, discovered her talents, and found a way to belong. Her work ethic is stellar, and her attitude towards school is unfailingly positive.
However, according to the New York State Education department, Caroline has learned nothing and shown no growth over the course of her entire school career.

Track is Part of This Student's Curriculum

William Potts finishes his run during
cross-country workouts.

Sixth grader William Potts was ready to run at Haddonfield Middle School's last cross-country practice, as he has been almost every practice day since September.
The coed team's roster lists 82 participants, but only two to three dozen attend the optional five-day-a-week workouts, coach Maureen Baker said last week.
Will came to almost every one, she said - "maybe he missed one."

Lawmakers Warn of Special Education Cuts

Some 12,000 special education teachers and aides could lose their jobs in the coming months unless Congress acts to stop impending cuts, according to a new report from Congressional Democrats.

Social Media Helps Teen with Autism Find Voice

TAMPA, Fla. -- Sometimes a picture can be worth a thousand followers too.

Henry Frost outside the Republican
National Convention.

That’s what happened to Henry Frost after he posted a photo to Facebook.
The photo shows 13-year-old Frost sitting on the steps outside a downtown Tampa building with his service dog Denzel. Not shown are the thousands of Republicans who had gathered nearby for the week-long Republican National Convention.
Frost holds a sign. It reads:
“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 granted equal rights to all people. I am a person. I want these rights.”
Frost has autism and a list of related physical problems which have so far eluded a tidy diagnosis. He communicates using an iPad app that speaks what he types.

Special Ed Changes and the Impact on Children

Special education as you knew it 50 years ago — or even 15 years ago — is long gone.
Over the past few decades, schools in Florida and across the nation have gradually begun "mainstreaming" students with disabilities into regular classrooms.
And — with the ushering in of new state rules that put most disabled children in the general education curriculum — we're about to see more and more mainstreaming.

Group Home Raises Concerns

This home on Salisbury Street
will be razed.

This story is just a sad reflection that the public's view of individuals with disabilities really hasn't changed at all. Read the comments when you link to the story. It's time people start seeing beyond disability and embrace diversity.

WORCESTER, Mass. --  A Brockton-based human services agency intends to operate a residential program for people with developmental disabilities at a Salisbury Street property where the existing home will be razed and replaced with a new building.

Autism, Parents and Teachers: Bridging the Communication Gap

SFGate.com autism advocate blogger Laura Shumaker touches another critical issue.

I was talking to a group of teachers last week, something I do frequently, about my experience raising a child with autism. My favorite part of these talks is the Q and A. “You can ask me anything,” I say, “and I will answer to the best of my ability.”
I get a lot of juicy questions, but there is one that I am asked most frequently:

I could do a better job if I could communicate more with parents. How can I get them to talk to me?

I flash back to the year that I was that parent, and how his teacher bridged the communication gap.

Addressing the Autism Education Crisis

Susan Moffitt is on target in her article from the Autism Key blog.

A recent article decrying the fact that Mississippi requires no autism training for its special education teachers struck me as hardly newsworthy. The reality is that special education teacher requirements vary drastically from state-to-state and when it comes to autism, they are abysmal. As far as I could tell from my research (and I would love to be wrong), only six states in the entire country require teachers who are responsible for educating children with autism to know anything about it. Michigan led the way in the early 80′s, followed by Delaware, West Virginia, Nevada, Florida and California. Florida and California’s autism endorsement requirements will be fully effective in 2011.

College Is Possible for Students with Autism

Kerry Magro knew from day one that college wouldn't be easy.
On the first day of classes, Magro distributed cards to each of his professors letting them know he had autism.
"I pretty much had to be very vulnerable and say I have a disability," said Magro, 23, of New Jersey. "One of the big problems for an autistic individual is usually the communication and social issue. It's asking you to do something that your disability says you're going to have a problem with."

School Finds Gifts in Autistic Children

Berwyn, Ill. — Karol Sigda is as bright as he is troubled.

He knows nearly every dinosaur and the era they came from, but gets so frustrated by handwriting that he struggles to complete book reports. The 8-year-old Berwyn resident already has developed plots for three more “Star Wars” sequels, but sometimes lacks the social skills to effectively communicate with his classmates and teachers.

Sigda has Asperger syndrome, a high-functioning diagnosis within the autism spectrum of disorders.
From an education standpoint, Sigda is problematic. He’s years ahead of his classmates in many ways, but still occasionally throws tantrums or just shuts down if he feels bored.

Rather than put Sigda and other children like him in special education classes, Havlicek Elementary School Principal Nancy Akin decided to try something new. Sigda and two other autistic third-grade boys were placed in a gifted program known simply as AIMS at the beginning of the most recent school year.

“We have known Karol and how bright he is since he’s been in kindergarten, and we wanted to give him and the other kids a chance to use their intellect,” Akin said. “One of the things that they talk about in the AIMS program is that every student has the right to optimal development, and we believe that too often, kids that are bright but have some kind of disability, for whatever reason, aren’t given that chance.”

California Agency Faces Financial Crisis

PETALUMA, Calif. -- Jay Brown and Gary Hament rave about the help that Old Adobe Development Services have provided them, so they didn't hesitate to participate in a grassroots effort this year seeking to reduce proposed state budget cuts that would have severely cut services for people with intellectual and development disabilities.
Brown and Hament felt empowered after Gov. Jerry Brown released a revised budget in March reducing these cuts to $174 million, but they remain concerned because the very existence of OADS could be threatened if statewide tax initiatives are not extended.
"I feel that people with disabilities are really being put under pressure: It's falling on all of us," Hament said. "Through our efforts, we found that we can actually make changes happen. I hope that the cuts won't be as severe as originally thought."

Colorado School Becomes a State Model for Teaching Children on the Spectrum

LITTLETON, Colo. -- Several years ago when Sarah Handy began teaching students with autism at Mortensen Elementary in Littleton, she found her students were rarely allowed to mix with other pupils in the Jefferson County school.
That has changed.
Now most of the 18 students with autism are integrated, and the work of the staff has caught the eye of the Colorado Department of Education.
Mortensen last week was named to be a model site for the Denver metro area in how to teach students with autism — providing the school with a $1,000 grant, training for teachers and an on-site coach.
The school has good inclusion practices, an anti-bullying program and an effective "Response to Intervention" model to give early assistance to children having difficulty learning.

Some Students With Autism May Make Transition to College

RALEIGH, N.C. — Although it’s not common, students with autism can make it into college if they have help and clear expectations.
That’s primarily because "we’re starting so much earlier with early intervention services. We definitely know it’s possible,” said Ann Palmer, director of advocacy and chapters for the Autism Society of North Carolina. "Not for everybody, but it’s an option.”