Life Before and After a Child’s Diagnosis

Check out this blog article from The New York Times, which includes real stories submitted by commenters on their families' journeys post-diagnosis.

For every parent of a child with a disability there is the moment they are given the news. And then there are the years spent responding to it.

Dr. Alberto Costa’s response, as chronicled by Dan Hurley in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine, was to find a medical way to mitigate the effects of Down syndrome.

Most parents are not neuroscientists, though. Their responses are quieter, but certainly no less life-encompassing and passionate.

Progress Claimed in Reporting Abuse

A continuation of the Times series regarding abuse of the developmentally disabled. A simply horrific situation.

ALBANY — Roughly 40 percent of the allegations of physical abuse of the developmentally disabled at group homes and institutions in New York in recent months were not reported to law enforcement authorities, a senior state official said on Monday.

The official, Courtney Burke, the new commissioner of the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, revealed that figure as the Cuomo administration laid out initial steps that it said it was taking to reform the state’s care of the disabled.

Ms. Burke and another administration official testified at a State Assembly hearing that underscored the steep challenges facing efforts to improve the system.