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Connecticut
Law Says Only Doctors - Not Teachers - Can Recommend Ritalin for Youngsters
Published:
Matthews refused to put him
on the drug. She believed the boy was energetic and outgoing but not
disruptive, and she suspected the school system was trying to medicate him just
to make it easier for the teachers.
Now the state of Connecticut
has weighed in on the side of parents like Matthews with a first-in-the-nation
law that reflects a growing backlash against what some see as overuse of
Ritalin and other behavioral drugs.
The law - approved
unanimously by the Legislature and signed by Gov. John G. Rowland last month -
prohibits teachers, counselors and other school officials from recommending
psychiatric drugs for any child.
The measure does not prevent
school officials from recommending that a child be evaluated by a medical
doctor. But the law is intended to make sure the first mention of drugs for a
behavior or learning problem comes from a doctor.
The chief sponsor, state
Rep. Lenny Winkler, is an emergency room nurse. "I cannot believe how many
young kids are on Prozac, Thorazine, Haldol - you name it," Winkler said.
"It blows my mind."
While she has no problem
with the use of Ritalin under a doctor's care, Winkler said a teacher's
recommendation is often enough to persuade parents to seek drug treatment for
their child's behavior problems.
"It's easier to give
somebody a pill than to get to the bottom of the problem," she said.
Nationally, nearly 20 million
prescriptions for Ritalin, Adderall and other stimulants used to treat ADHD
were written last year - a 35 percent increase over 1996, according to IMS
Health, a health care information company. Most of those prescriptions were for
boys under 12, IMS Health said.
In some elementary and
middle schools, as many as 6 percent of all students take Ritalin or other
psychiatric drugs, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Dr. Andres Martin, a child
psychiatrist at the Yale University Child Study Center, said schools have no
business practicing psychiatry.
"We've all heard these
horror stories of parents who are told, 'If you don't medicate your child, he
can't be in the classroom,'" he said. "You never hear the school say,
'If you don't take the damn appendix out, this kid has a bad outcome.' You say,
'Your kid has a stomach ache. Take him to the doctor.'"
The Connecticut Association
of Boards of Education has taken no position on the bill. Nor has the
Connecticut Education Association, the state's largest teachers union. But
union President Rosemary Coyle said the she believes the problem is overstated.
"I really believe
teachers do not practice medicine," Coyle said. "We don't recommend
kids get on drugs."
Concern about Ritalin and
other drugs is widespread. The Texas Board of Education adopted a resolution
last year recommending that schools consider non-medical solutions to behavior
problems. The Colorado school board approved a similar resolution in 1999, and
legislation regarding psychiatric drugs in school has been proposed in nearly a
dozen states.
In the New Canaan school
district, Matthews and her husband took their son, now 8, to a private
psychologist, who said the boy has trouble with reasoning. He now receives
special education from the school system.
"I was able to get, for
$2,000, a different label that has an educational connotation, rather than
medical," said Matthews, who did not want her son's name used.
Barbara Lombardo, the
district's director of special education, said she supports the new law, but
rejected the suggestion that shool officials promote behavioral drugs or other
medication.
"I can state to you
unequivocally that we do not in the public school system profile children"
for behavior problems, she said. "Every decision we make to assess a child
is made" by a team of staffers.
Matthews said she has
resolved many of her differences with the school system, which did not threaten
to remove her son from class.
"I'm really
thrilled" about the law, she said, "because it gives parents an
awareness that there should be a clear difference between education and
medication. Our schools are now getting into the field of mental health. That's
not what we send our children to school for."
AP-ES-07-17-01 1812EDT
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