Fla. Pilot Program Breaks Down Barriers

What a great idea in so many ways. Raises autism awareness in the charter school, while promoting inclusion, and for the students a chance to develop social skills and begin focusing on a career.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - In a first of its kind program, two Palm Beach County charter schools are teaming up to help students on the autism spectrum become career-ready.

Starting this semester, students from Palm Beach School for Autism are taking courses at South Tech Academy.

Opinon: 'Born This Way' Suprises One Father; Needs to Promote Inclusion

Reality TV ruins everything. The genre feeds off stereotypes, linking the twinned emotions of fascination and disgust. It thrives by portraying its subjects as Other, rendering them as objects to loathe, mock, desire or praise. If there’s something you really care about, the last thing you should want is to see it portrayed on reality TV.So it was with intense trepidation that I watched the first two episodes of “Born This Way,” a six-episode show from the A&E network about seven Californian millennials with Down syndrome. I am the father of a boy with Down syndrome and a critic of the ways we portray disability in the media. There’s so much wrong with how we represent Down syndrome in particular, but reality TV seemed like the worst possible vehicle to correct those wrongs.

Minn. Olmstead Plan Approved

After nearly four years, several revisions and numerous court filings, a federal judge approved the Minnesota Olmstead Plan Tuesday, giving people with disabilities a clearer vision for how the state would integrate them within the community.U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said the latest version of the Olmstead plan submitted in August emphasizes key changes including concrete data, specific timelines to establish measurable goals and added commitments that make the plan an "evolving document."

A First: Student with Down Syndrome Joins Sorority

MURRAY, Ky. -- Alexis Cain thought about what it would be like to have a sister. A few weeks ago, she gained more than 130.
The student at Murray State University in Murray, Ky., made school history as the first Greek member with Down syndrome after she accepted a bid at sorority recruitment in early August. Cain waved her bid high in the air, as women screamed in excitement and she was announced a new sister of Alpha Sigma Alpha.

25 Years Later, Some See Real Progress

Read on. This is not just about physical limitations - but all individuals.

NEW YORK — When New York City announced 30 years ago that it was spending more than $50 million for buses with wheelchair lifts, Ronnie Raymond rolled her eyes. The founder of a reinsurance brokerage firm, she commuted by bus “and I never saw anyone in a wheelchair, anywhere,” she says. “So why spend all that money?” 

The city had already invested in 1,362 accessible buses, and only 10 to 20 people citywide a day boarded in a wheelchair. 

“The reason I didn’t see anyone in wheelchairs,” Ms. Raymond later realized when she herself developed multiple sclerosis and had to use a wheelchair, “was because they couldn’t get anywhere.” Most could not even get to the bus stop. 

Best States for Disability Services Ranked

An annual ranking of states offering the best services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities reveals a familiar but evolving landscape.The analysis of disability services in all 50 states and the District of Columbia being released Thursday by United Cerebral Palsy finds top performers spanning the map. In previous years, the best services were largely clustered in the Northeast and West.Arizona claimed the number one slot in the ranking for the third year in a row. Also rounding out the 10 best on this year’s list are Michigan, Hawaii, Georgia, New York, South Carolina, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio and Missouri.

Teen Couple Humiliated at Movie Theater Plan New Date Courtesy of Phillies

OK, even as a Mets fan, I have to post this and tip my cap to Philadelphia Phillies and their fans.

What first seemed like a humiliating date night for a teenage couple has set off a flood of support larger than even FOX 29 expected.

On Wednesday night, we introduced you to 17-year-old Annarose and 18-year-old Stephan. Both live with Down Syndrome and both are inseparable.

This past weekend, Stephan planned to take Annarose to an AMC movie theater in Marlton, New Jersey. The theater had assigned seating and the couple accidentally sat in the wrong row.

A movie theater worker told them to move to different seats that were separate from each other.

Cheerleading for All

Amanda Zimdars during practice.

UNION GROVE, Wi.  — Lauren Behrendt doesn’t talk much, but if you ask the 18-year-old with Down’s syndrome about cheerleading, she’s quick to respond.“Um-hm. Fun,” she said last Tuesday, Feb. 5, during her cheerleading squad’s practice, her eyes lighting up when asked about the activity.
Behrendt is one of eight special needs individuals on Union Grove’s Inspire cheer team, which pairs helper cheerleaders with developmentally disabled people for a rare type of competition squad.

Children Thrive in Inclusionary School

There's a small school at the University of Washington where many kids with developmental disabilities first learn to talk, count and play. The kids learn these skills in classes with their typically-developing peers, from birth through kindergarten. KUOW's Ann Dornfeld reports from the EEU: the Experimental Education Unit.

Pat O'Kell is watching his son Finn's kindergarten class at the EEU from an observation booth with one–way glass.
O'Kell: "If you sit in these booths and watch for a little while, everyone's sort of struck by which ones are the typical kids, and which ones are the special needs kids. It gets kinda hard to tell. They all kinda blend together and they're all just kids to the teachers and to each other, which is the great thing about inclusion."
About half of the kindergarteners at the EEU have autism or other disabilities, half of the kids are typically–developing. The students have a wide variety of skill levels, but they learn side-by-side.

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.

N.J. Moves Toward More Community Homes

Paul Salavatore with state Human
Services Commissioner Jennifer
Velez in Closter on Tuesday. Salavatore
lives in a group home in Haworth.

CLOSTER — At least 16 New Jersey municipalities have committed to using affordable housing trust funds to provide supported homes for adults with developmental disabilities, Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez said Tuesday.
Combined with state matching funds, the money is expected to help open at least a couple dozen community homes for the disabled, each of which would house several people with disabilities ranging from severe intellectual disabilities to cerebral palsy and autism.

Summer Camp for Children with Autism

FENTON, Mich. -- Summer camp is one of the rites of passage of childhood, but not for every child. In fact, it's fun most children with special needs miss out on.
Leslie Toldo has the story of some determined moms and a camp director who are changing that.
It's called "Power Camp: Peer Outreach with Exceptional Results." It is in fact that, and then some.
Camp Copneconic in July looks like a typical day at camp, but this is something different, something magical.

Vermont Ranks No. 1 in Medicaid Services

Vermont offers the best Medicaid services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities while Mississippi provides the worst, according to an annual ranking released Thursday.
The 50-state analysis from United Cerebral Palsy compares services offered across the country, giving preference to states where more individuals are served in the community as opposed to institutions.

Opinion: Don't Warehouse People with Disabilities

Guest column in The Record of Bergen County, N.J., by Lowell Arye, executive director of the Alliance for the Betterment of Citizens with Disabilities in Hamilton.


The urging of some to halt plans to close Vineland Developmental Center would move New Jersey in the opposite direction of 30 years of public policy toward community living for people with developmental disabilities.
In his budget, Governor Christie boldly announced the closure of a state developmental center over the next two years. New Jersey has not closed a developmental center since 1998, when it shut down North Princeton. It is far behind the national trend of deinstitutionalization.

BALTIMORE -- At Western High School, few students had heard of bocce when coach Mary Hain was putting together a team of players, with and without disabilities, in anticipation of Maryland's first Unified Indoor Bocce State High School Invitational.
Senior Thea Chase said she came out for the team thinking that "it was hibachi, some kind of eating contest." In fact, bocce is a sport that resembles bowling.
Ultimately, three freshmen and several seniors, including Chase, joined the team and trained for the interscholastic competition, which pairs students with intellectual and other disabilities with their high school peers.