News for the Special Education Community
South Carolina Rep. Phil Owens says a story he heard from one of his constituents convinced him it was time to do away with the state’s requirement that students pass an exit exam to earn their high school diploma. The man had three sons, all close in age and approaching graduation from high school. One of the [...]
by Christina Samuels – The long-awaited fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM-5, was released last weekend by the American Psychiatric Association with several revisions that affect conditions such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that are common in school contexts. The manual was last published [...]
The number of students who have special needs in Minnesota is growing and the funding system to educate them needs to be repaired. Each student with special needs has an individual education plan (IEP) that by law must be funded. All children, including those with special needs, have an equal right to an education as [...]
by Chris Harris – A change in how the school district manages and administers its home programs for special needs students — a cost-cutting measure — has several parents in the village outraged. Emotion was on display during an informational meeting Thursday night at the Education Center on Cottage Place, where parents chided the school [...]
by Gil Smart – Inside the “sensory room” at Pequea Elementary School, all is calm — by design. Here, students with autism or similar disorders can escape the classroom cacophony. Kids can crawl through gauzy colored tubes, relax in a rope swing, dig in a sand pit or squeeze through a “steamroller,” a device designed [...]
by John Finnerty – The state hands out special education dollars under a flawed formula that gives schools the same amount of money, regardless of how many students need services or how intense and costly those services are, lawmakers said. It is a problem that has shortchanged school districts year after year, with some districts [...]
by Rachel Baye – DC Public Schools officials are trying to cut down on the number of students being diagnosed with disabilities and enrolled in special education programs. The effort is part of the school system and the city’s goal of reducing the number of public school students attending “nonpublic schools,” relatively pricey private schools [...]
by Dani Carlson – The number of children getting special education services is going down in almost every West Michigan school district, despite the fact that the number of autism diagnoses is climbing. The allegation is that districts are cutting special education services to save money. So Target 8 crunched numbers obtained from the state, [...]
by Jacqueline Weaver – Special education is often the second largest line item in school budgets and the one for which it is the toughest to plan. Families relocate. A new student is diagnosed with special needs. A longtime student is suddenly experiencing difficulty in school. In cases where a child needs a residential placement [...]
by Emily McFarlan Miller – When Mary Jo Shepherd of Schaumburg first read about the Illinois State Board of Education’s proposals to end class size restrictions for both special education classrooms and general education classrooms that serve students with disabilities, she wondered which of her five children they would affect. Would it affect her daughter [...]
