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December 4, 2001        News Morgue Search  www.feat.org/search/news.asp

EDUCATION

·        Funding Special Education

·        Parents Fight For Attitude Adjustment By Educators

·        Autistic Kids Swell School Costs

·        Letter: Heavy Metal Clarification

·        Reader’s Post

 

 

Funding Special Education

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36686-2001Nov29.html

[Editorial in the Washington Post, November 30, 2001.]

Twenty-five years ago, when Congress passed a law requiring public schools to provide education to students with disabilities, the federal government promised to pick up 40 percent of the tab. It’s never kept that promise. Over the years special education costs have mushroomed, straining the budgets of states and local governments. So it’s easy to understand the appeal of a provision that House and Senate education conferees will take up today, a Senate-passed amendment that requires Congress to meet the federal commitment. It mandates special education spending increases of roughly $2.5 billion for each of the next six years.

It’s a worthy goal, but the wrong approach.

There’s reason for legislators to worry about how much federal money

will be available for education. President Bush’s budget fell far short of what was needed to meet the goals set out in his education bill. With the administration continuing to push for tax cuts as part of an economic stimulus plan, and the costs of the war on terrorism mounting, domestic programs are headed for a squeeze. But carving out a mandatory requirement for one program is not the way to guarantee adequate funding.

The proposal before the conferees takes special education spending out of the normal appropriations process, putting it ahead of all the other needs, both educational and otherwise, competing for federal dollars. It jumps ahead of a debate on special education that is coming next year, when the program is up for reauthorization, and Congress will rightly be taking a hard look at how it has operated and whether reforms are needed.

Proponents argue that the need for more money is desperate and

longstanding, and that reforms can still proceed even if a mandatory funding

level is set. But even assuming that’s true, the question remains, why this

program above others? Why not, for example, the Title I program, which

directs spending toward students in poverty, and which has never been fully

funded either? Without a good answer, and there’s not one, the conferees

should say no to mandatory funding. © 2001 The Washington Post Company

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Parents Fight For Attitude Adjustment By Educators

[By Chad Lucas in The Halifax Herald Limited, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.] www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/displaystory?2001/12/03+185.raw+Metro+200 <-- address ends here.

Paula Nielsen got so tired of battling with administrators to have her autistic son Mark treated fairly in school that she finally pulled him out of class halfway through Grade 6.

“They shut me out of the school,” she said. “I couldn’t leave my child there anymore.”

Things are better now that Mark, 13, is in junior high, she said. But she and other parents of children with special needs gathered Sunday to say the education system is still letting them down.

Parents face a daily struggle to have their children treated like they belong in school, said Barb Horner of Families for Inclusive Education.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding and misrepresentation,” she said.

“It tends to be our children who get the blame for the lack of money

in the system. I don’t think that’s true.”

The group responded to an Education Department report from the special needs implementation review committee that came out in September.

The report “doesn’t reflect the reality of what our experiences are,” Ms.

Horner said.

It focuses too much on lack of funds, when things could improve for

special-needs students if educators just changed their attitudes, she said.

Parents have to fight for their children every step of the way, Ms.  Nielsen said. Her relentlessness earned her and her son a reputation as difficult, she said.

But she said she’s getting along well with staff at Prince Arthur Junior High because they’re willing to communicate and listen to parents.

A lack of communication - between senior administrators, teachers, and parents - is one of the biggest challenges special-needs children and their families face, parents said.

The group called for more accountability in the system, more training and support for classroom teachers, and more opportunity for parents to be part of their children’s education.

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Autistic Kids Swell School Costs

Youths with disorder soar, boost need for specialized teachers

[By Mike Wowk in The Detroit News.]

http://www.detnews.com/2001/schools/0112/03/a01-357716.htm

Shelby Township, Mich. - The number of children with autism is skyrocketing in Metro Detroit, straining public schools as they struggle to find qualified teachers and more classrooms.

Oakland County had 200 students certified as autistic impaired in 1995. By December 2000, they had 641. In Macomb, the autistic program had 24 students in 1984. Today, it has 258.

For years, the number of autistic children in Wayne County remained steady at about 200 a year. In 1996, it jumped to 500. This year, it’s expected to reach 1,000.

Autism is a neurological disorder characterized by self-absorption, inability to socially interact, repetitive behavior and social dysfunction.

“Autism was once rare, perhaps only one or two of every 10,000 births,” said Sally Burton-Hoyle, executive director of the Autism Society of Michigan. “Now, it may be as many as one in every 500.”

While medical professionals try to pinpoint the reason for the surge here and nationwide, Metro Detroit schools look for ways to pay the costs of educating autistic children, at the same time as they’re dealing with a shortage of teachers in the field.

Autistic students attend school 213 days a year, compared to only about 180 for most students. With that extra time, plus the specialized teachers, comes extra costs.

It costs $20,000 to $25,000 a year to educate an autistic student, compared to the roughly $7,000 a year for a regular education student, said Don Bollinger, associate superintendent of the Macomb Intermediate School District.

Metro Detroit school officials say the increase in numbers of autistic students is one reason why they’re going to voters this year and next for tax increases for special education.

Oakland County voters in September approved a 1-mill tax increase for special education. Macomb County residents will vote on a similar proposal on Dec. 10, and Wayne County officials say they’re planning a countywide vote on special education next year.

Elusive cause

The cause of autism has remained elusive for medical professionals and parents alike.

Julia Topalian’s first 12 months of life were as normal as that of any child.

“I had no difficulties in the pregnancy or the delivery,” said her mother, Michele Topalian of Shelby Township, “and she was a normal baby.  But, after about a year, we started noticing the first symptoms.”

Julia, now 7, appeared not to hear directions, even though her hearing tested as normal. More doctors were consulted. The diagnosis: autism, a neurological disorder with no easily identifiable cause.

“I wish I could (pinpoint) a reason as the cause, but I don’t have any,” Topalian said.

Toxic chemicals, like mercury, viruses, drugs and dietary changes are suspected as possible causes. And experts attribute better medical diagnoses and more liberal guidelines by state education departments in defining autism as reasons for the growing numbers.

Some also attribute the increase to a desire by parents to pin the more politically acceptable label of autistic, rather than mentally impaired, on their children.

“There was a change in the definition of autism a few years ago that made it easier for more children to qualify (as autistics),” noted Luke Tsai, a psychiatrist at a University of Michigan clinic that treats autistic children.

Teacher training

Finding teachers trained to work with autistic children is one of the biggest challenges for school districts.

In Oakland County, only about half of the teachers in autistic classrooms are formally certified in that field. The county would like to hire more, but they’re not available.

Until recently, only one Michigan college, Oakland University in Auburn Hills, certified teachers to work with autistic students. Now, several other colleges, including Wayne State, Central Michigan and Grand Valley State, have started a consortium to help train autistic-certified teachers.

The curriculum consists of six courses, plus student teaching, that comes only after a teacher is already certified for special education.

“The biggest problem is the teacher shortage,” said Kathryn Mathey, director of special education for the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency. “We have the instructors from Oakland University come here to our building to offer the entire autistic curriculum here.”

Kathleen Golinski, director of special education for Oakland County’s intermediate school district, said districts compete with each other to hire away autistic specialists to handle the load.

“The turnover is incredible. I’d estimate close to 50 percent of our staff are (teaching) students who are there under emergency approval,” Golinski said.

Macomb program

Terry Maley of Shelby Township said her daughter, Samantha, 7, showed no signs of autism until she turned about 15 months old. Now, she attends Wilde Elementary School, one of 14 sites where the Macomb Intermediate School District operates classes for autistic students.

“Samantha’s teachers at Wilde are fabulous. The Macomb program is one of the best I’ve seen,” Terry Maley said.

Marge Stoi started in 1984 as a teacher of the autistic for the Macomb Intermediate School District. She now directs the program.

“Of the 258 children in the program, 150 are 3 to 10 years old,” she said.

Autistic children have little social interaction with other people and seem to ignore sensory stimuli to which most children would respond. So at Wilde, students like Julia Topalian and Samantha Maley are exposed to a variety of mostly visual stimuli.

In general classrooms, a day’s lesson plan might be a list of words or sentences. In the Wilde autistic classroom, it’s a series of pictures. A paintbrush and easel means it’s art period. A book represents a reading period. A picture of a school bus means it’s time to go home.

“We set up activities to help develop skills that other kids pick up naturally,” said Denise Jackson, assistant director of the Macomb autistic program.

 

 

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Letter: Heavy Metal Clarification

 

Just a clarification re the following note from the IMFAR Autism Research Presentations article published December 2, 2001:

“ C. Halloway and a group of Arizona-based researchers presented preliminary work on heavy metal toxicity in people with autism. They hypothesize that there may be a statistically significant association between levels of heavy metal toxicity and the severity of autism, as measured by the GARS. If such an association is observed, it could warrant further research into the mechanism of effect that involves exposure to one or more heavy metals and the development of autism.”

Actually, our group’s preliminary results on 50 autism families and 30 control families found that:

1)            Maternal consumption of seafood over 2 servings/month led to a 3.5x increased risk of having a child with autism.

2)            Children with autism have 10 ear infections during their first three years, compared to 2 for the controls; more than 8 ear infections yields an 8x increased risk of having autism (presumably because oral antibiotics almost completely stop excretion of mercury).

3)            Children with autism excrete slightly less mercury and lead in their hair than average, which coupled with Bradstreet’s data on increased excretion with DMSA suggests that children with autism have an inhibited ability to eliminate heavy metals.

4)            Children with autism have more severe reactions to vaccinations than the controls (P<0.02)

5)   40% of children have pica (eating non-food items), which will increase exposure to heavy metals.  Thus, we hypothesize that stopping maternal consumption of seafood during pregnancy,  greatly reducing use of oral antibiotics, and eliminating mercury from vaccines could greatly reduce the number of children with autism.

The statistical analysis was done by a psychiatric epidemiologist on our team at ASU.

James B. Adams

Professor

Chemical and Materials Engineering

Arizona State University

PO Box 876006

Tempe, AZ 85287-6006

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Reader’s Posts

We are trying to start a support group for Clarksburg, WV and the

surrounding areas for parents or family remebers of people with autism. If

I am looking for a MEDICAL REFERENCE or something in writing from a medical

professional that says something to the effect of “having family available

and stable in an Autistic’s life is essential” or something similar.  –jypsy

 

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