Editorial: NYS Should Pay Up Now

Of the 126,000 New Yorkers with developmental disabilities, about 110,000 of them are serviced by nonprofit organizations, most of which depend on state funding.

That's just one reason why a recent audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is so troubling. Of the 5,946 contracts the state has with not-for-profit entities, state payments were late 87 percent of the time in 2013. That's an increase from 78 percent in 2012.

Advocates Say Thousands Banned From Voting Based on Cognitive Disabilities

LOS ANGELES — At a time when election officials are struggling to convince more Americans to vote, advocates for the disabled say thousands of people with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy and other intellectual or developmental disabilities have been systematically denied that basic right in the nation’s largest county.A Voting Rights Act complaint to be filed Thursday with the U.S. Justice Department goes to a politically delicate subject that states have grappled with over the years: Where is the line to disqualify someone from the voting booth because of a cognitive or developmental impairment?

Child, Home and Conscience

Noam Bramson, Mayor of New Rochelle, N.Y., (a suburb of NYC) reveals his troubled conscience following a community meeting where residents voice strong objections to a proposed group home.  

Let me tell you a little about Matthew.  Next fall, Matthew will enter fourth grade.  His favorite food is pizza.  He’s always happy to jump on his trampoline or go for a swim.  He can’t wait to return to Disney World.  And he loves riding horses.

As the school year was wrapping up, Matthew and I, along with his classmates, had lunch together.  Their teacher had made the winning bid on “lunch with the mayor” at a Special Education PTA auction.  I could not have asked for a warmer, friendlier greeting from the kids, although — let’s be honest — the McDonald’s happy meals that I brought with me may have accounted for just a bit of the excitement.

Tenn. Guidelines Confuse Agencies

Tennessee agencies that care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are struggling to help those they care for achieve life goals, according to a court-appointed review panel.Each of the 19 service providers evaluated in the latest round of biannual quality reports published at the end of May was rated noncompliant in helping people meet goals such as doing dishes or checking the mail.But the panel’s results don’t mean these 19 agencies are doing a bad job in the state’s eyes. All were found partially or fully compliant with individual planning standards in the most recent quality reports from the state Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

NYS Faces Growing Special Ed Challenges

ALBANY, N.Y. — The Department of Education faces a daunting challenge in accommodating a large and growing population of special needs students, statistics in an Independent Budget Office report released Tuesday revealed.

The report found there were 183,850 special education students, constituting 18.1 percent of the total student population in D.O.E. public schools during the 2012-13 academic year, the most recent year for which data is available.

The percentage of special education students has risen every year since 2009, when the I.B.O. started collecting information on public school demographics.

Study: iPads May Aid Children with Autism Develop Verbal Skills

Adding access to a computer tablet to traditional therapy may help children with autism talk and interact more, new research suggests.

The study compared language and social communication treatment -- with or without access to an iPad computer tablet -- in 61 young children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and found that the device helped boost the effect of the treatment.

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."