Special Education Law Blog

Autism Society Reponse to Newtown Tragedy

I am still reeling from the depth and magnitude of what happened last week with the killing of so many young children and their heroic teachers and staff. I am not sure when, if ever, I will be able to make any sense of this extreme violence. However, in the media frenzy that always follows such events there have been irresponsible statements attributing autism as a possible explanation. Below is the Autism Society's reponse on this issue.

The Harsh Reality of Incarcerated Youth

The use of seclusion and restraint for children with special needs in our nation’s schools has received national attention.  These practices have been deemed as cruel and dangerous, and various pieces of legislation have been proposed to eliminate their use.  Yet, these practices are being used on an ongoing basis on our nation’s incarcerated youth.  Up to 81,000 teens are incarcerated in juvenile facilities on any given night, and an additional 10,000 teens are in adult prisons. According to the ACLU, which released a report on solitary confinement in October, a significant number of these facilities isolate youth for days, weeks, months, or even years.  The use of solitary confinement, according to the ACLU, causes “anguish, provokes serious mental and physical health problems, and works against rehabilitation for teenagers.”

One of the most tragic outcomes for incarcerated youth is suicide, and half of teen suicides occur while youth are placed in solitary isolation.   A position paper published by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which expresses concern about the high rate and potential underreporting of teen suicides in jails, states that further research is needed to delineate better the relationship between suicide and isolation.  Yet, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (5), the research is in already.  The potential psychiatric consequences of prolonged use of solitary confinement on these “developmentally vulnerable” adolescents are “well recognized” and include depression, anxiety, and psychosis. 

The Real Harm of Bullying

October was National Bullying Prevention month. Throughout our nation’s schools, students attended pep rallies, signed petitions, wore t-shirts with anti-bully messages, and participated in anti-bully marches. Anti-bullying Facebook pages, some with extraordinary amounts of helpful resources and information, were created. It was all a wonderful display of anti-bully sentiment which ensured that everyone was thinking about bullying behavior and its consequence, at least for awhile. So what happens in November? Now that anti-bullying month has ended, what is occurring today in your child’s lunchroom or on the playground? Were the October messages enough to reduce bullying? What really works to help reduce bullying? There is a huge amount of literature on the best methods and curriculums to defeat bullying. Yet some of it is contradictory. One strategy from one anti-bullying expert is deemed misguided by another. To add clarity to this discussion, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has defined 10 best practices for bullying prevention. Those 10 strategies are:

1. Focus on the social environment of the school

2. Assess bullying at your school

3. Garner staff and parent support for bullying prevention

4. Form a group to coordinate the school’s bullying prevention activities

5. Train your staff in bullying prevention

6. Establish and enforce school rules and policies related to bullying

7. Increase adult supervision in hot spots where bullying occurs

8. Intervene consistently and appropriately in bullying situations

9. Focus some class time on bullying prevention.

10. Continue these efforts over time.

Sleeping Difficulties Prevalent in Students with ASD

Many children have difficulty sleeping.  But a disproportionate number of children with special needs have sleep problems.  Anywhere from 49 to 89% of children with autism spectrum disorders, 25 to 50% of children with ADHD, and 34 to 86% of children with cognitive impairments are estimated to experience sleep difficulties.  Additionally children with other syndromes, such as Angelman or Down syndromes, are also reported to have sleep difficulties.  But what is not known is if the learning problems cause the sleep problems, or if the sleep problems cause the learning problems.  Dr. Bonuck and her associates from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine attempted to answer this question in a prospective study just published in Pediatrics by looking for an association between sleep difficulties in young children with a later need for special education services.

 Prospective studies follow a specific population (or cohort) over time, identify certain risk factors, and see how these factors affect outcomes over time. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (also known as ‘the Children of the 90s’ study) is one such cohort that had enrolled approximately 85% of pregnant women in Avon, England in 1991-1992, allowing for a large population-based study.  The initial cohort in the study, which was used by Dr. Bonuck and her associates for their research, comprised more than 13,000 infants, but children with any known condition that might lead to a disability or was associated with a disability were excluded. 

Chart of Disability Issues Makes it Easy to be an Informed Voter

Thanks to Disability Rights Ohio, an Ohio disability organization it is now very easy to be an informed voter on issues effecting people with disabilities. They have put together a side by side comparison chart of the candidate's position on the issues. Now it is obviously time to read it, be informed and vote for the issues that matter to us, our families and people with disabilities that we care about.

Education Advisors to Presidential Candidates to Debate

Here is another forum to view the candidate's respective positions on matters related to education and hopefully special education. Education Advisers to Obama and Romney to Engage in a Live Debate at Teachers College, Columbia University on  Monday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m. ET

Exclusive Live Webcast Hosted by Education Week on edweek.org

Teachers College, Columbia University, will host "Taking the Election to School: Making Education a Focus of the 2012 Election," a debate between Jon Schnur, education adviser to President Barack Obama, and Phil Handy, education adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, on Monday, October 15, at 7:00 pm Eastern. Teachers College President Susan H. Fuhrman will moderate the debate, which will take place at Teachers College's Cowin Conference Center. The event will be webcast live by Education Week on edweek.org.

Participants:

• Jon Schnur is co-founder of America Achieves. Previously, Mr. Schnur co-founded and served as CEO of New Leaders for New Schools. He has also served as senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and co-chairman of the Obama for America Education Policy Committee.
• Phil Handy is the higher education co-chair of Mr. Romney's Education Policy Advisory Group. Mr. Handy is CEO of Strategic Industries; former chairman of the Florida State Board of Education; twice appointed by President George W. Bush as vice chairman of the National Board for Education Sciences; and a member of the board of directors of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

A panel discussion featuring education journalists and other experts will immediately follow the debate.

Register free to view the live webcast on edweek.org.

Effects of Romney/Ryan Health Plan on Children and Adults with Disabilities

Bill Clinton, in his address to the Democratic convention this month, decried the effects of the proposed Medicaid restructuring on the elderly, the poor, and families with children who have autism, Down syndrome, or other severe disabilities. Clinton, who said that he didn’t know what these families would do under these cuts, asserted that he knew what he would do: “I’m going to do everything I can to see that it doesn’t happen. We can’t let it happen.” We as parents of children with disabilities and those that care about children with disabilities need to vote for the vital interests of our children, and make sure our children with disabilities, who are over 18, register to vote and do vote. Medicaid is just one of the many issues that must be on the radar of voters for this election.Approximately 60 million Americans—including 29.5 million children, 15.2 million adults, 8.2 million people with disabilities, and 6.1 million seniors--rely on Medicaid to meet their health care needs. These numbers include 40% of our nation’s poor, 20% of those with severe disabilities, and nearly two thirds of residents of nursing homes. 

Romney’s Educational Vouchers a Disaster for Special Education Students

Schools are not like private corporations. Governor Romney’s goal to privatize, voucherize, and let the market determine winners and losers is simplistic. The reality is we do not have to wait to project that under his system special education students will be losers. To be clear, I advocate on a regular basis in appropriate cases for students to be tuitioned out to private schools with their IEPs intact, even if that school is more restrictive because it has what the child needs to receive a FAPE.

 As a primary part of his education platform, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is proposing a pro-choice, pro-voucher system that will allow parents to choose which schools their children can attend.  Romney is arguing that market forces and competition will force improvements in public schools.  Additionally, Romney is proposing to allow federal Title I and IDEA funds (which will also likely be cut) to become “portable” for low income and special needs students.  These funds would follow the students to any district or public charter school, private school where permitted by state law, or toward tutoring or online courses. In theory, these proposals sound wonderful.  Who wouldn’t want their children, both regular and special education, to go to the best possible schools?  These proposals, however, could be disastrous for special education students.

The Epidemic Effects of Non-Vaccination

As an unfortunate legacy of the now discredited Wakefield “study” in many areas of the country, it has become too common that parents are opting out of vaccinating their youngsters before entering kindergarten. The negative consequences for their children is obvious, but for the school and the community as a whole the results can be quite significant. While some parents are legitimately opting out of vaccinations for medical, religious or philosophical exemptions from vaccinating their children. In the cases where parents have a sincerely held religious belief that prohibits vaccinations, those beliefs need to be respected; that is the small minority of cases. Similarly some children must not be vaccinated, either because they have medical conditions or have had adverse reactions which contraindicate their receiving vaccinations.  These children depend upon what is known as herd immunity to protect them against serious if not lethal cases of contagious but preventable diseases.  To achieve herd immunity, a critical mass of the population must be vaccinated, usually about 95% depending on the illness being vaccinated against.  At this level, disease transmission is contained because it cannot be transferred.  Outbreaks of disease, however, can occur in areas where this threshold is unmet, and those individuals who are not vaccinated; e.g., the young, the immunocompromised, the medically vulnerable, or those who are vaccinated but for whom the vaccine is not working, all become at risk.

 

It's Time for Individuals with Disabilities to Vote

Given the current environment where the rights of a segments of society to vote is being limited and challenged, it is especially important to examine the rights of people with disabilities to vote. While often an overlooked and ignored segment of society, people with disabilities need to make their voices heard in the political process. As President Bill Clinton expressed in his nominating speech on September 5, 2012, this election will have a significant effect on the health care and educational rights of all citizens but especially the most vulnerable among us which obviously includes people with disabilities. Make no mistake voting for the Ryan budget and overall plan will have a permanent and regressively harmful effect on my clients, my son, families of children with disabilities and many people who I care about. It is time to register all people with disabilities and to in fact vote. We must be active  citizens in the political process.