Category: Special Education

This is So Not a Surprise

No Comments
In news that surprise no one, Eve Moskowitz’s Success Academy has been sued for systematic discrimination against disabled students:

When it was revealed that a Brooklyn school run by the Success Academy charter network was systematically pushing out struggling and disabled students identified on a “Got to Go” list, the company’s head Eva Moskowitz said the list was the work of a rogue principal, unrepresentative of any broader policy. Critics of the lucrative, influential 36-school network have long alleged that it maintains high test scores by pressuring parents of students with disabilities to pull them from its schools. A federal civil rights complaint filed yesterday by 13 parents along with politicians and advocacy groups bolsters the case, alleging that difficulties faced by special-needs kids are actually the result of a company-wide policy that has been in effect for years.

“Success Academy operates schools in some of the most distressed neighborhoods of this city and receives considerable public funding but fails to serve students with disabilities in accordance with the law,” Legal Services NYC direct Raun Rasmussen said in a statement. “These children deserve better.”

………

When it was revealed that a Brooklyn school run by the Success Academy charter network was systematically pushing out struggling and disabled students identified on a “Got to Go” list, the company’s head Eva Moskowitz said the list was the work of a rogue principal, unrepresentative of any broader policy. Critics of the lucrative, influential 36-school network have long alleged that it maintains high test scores by pressuring parents of students with disabilities to pull them from its schools. A federal civil rights complaint filed yesterday by 13 parents along with politicians and advocacy groups bolsters the case, alleging that difficulties faced by special-needs kids are actually the result of a company-wide policy that has been in effect for years.

“Success Academy operates schools in some of the most distressed neighborhoods of this city and receives considerable public funding but fails to serve students with disabilities in accordance with the law,” Legal Services NYC direct Raun Rasmussen said in a statement. “These children deserve better.”

 ………

The other cases all echo this one, with some variations—some parents have already withdrawn their child, one was expelled in his fourth year, and some parents, like Jackson, are still fighting to receive special education within Success schools.

Each set of allegations involves school administrators ignoring or downplaying disability diagnoses, and when confronted with them, failing to provide such support measures as small classes or paraprofessionals. When behavioral problems arise with the inadequately accommodated special-needs child, rather than reassessing, the schools allegedly suspend the kids, force parents to pick them up early, and in some cases, call paramedics to take them to emergency rooms.

 ………

Meanwhile, the State University of New York, which licenses charter schools, is planning to investigate Success’s alleged pressure tactics, according to a New York Post report.

This is how charter schools work, because this is what we pay them for.

Essentially, they get paid for high test scores, and the easiest way to do this is to make sure that under-performing or difficult students never enroll, and to make sure that those who do enroll leave.

Now We Know Why Bill DiBlasio Turned Down a few Charter Applications

No Comments

You may have read about the battle between Bill DiBlasio and political hack/Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz over the allocation of public spaces for some of her schools, with New York Governor and complete tool, Mario Cuomo rather unsurprisingly taking her side.

What you may not be aware of is that the DiBlasio administration approved 36 of 45 applications, and 5 of 8 for Success Academy.

What you may also not know is that the requests by Moscowitz would have taken space from a puclic school literally doing therapy for disabled students in the halls:

From now on, she will apply four criteria in reviewing proposed co-locations. She won’t put elementary and high schools in the same building. She won’t keep approving small schools that only require more high-paid supervisors to run them. She won’t approve co-locations that require expensive renovations of school properties.

And, most importantly, she won’t allow reduced services or seats for special education students.

“These are the most vulnerable and highest needs kids in our system,” Fariña said, but “they were the first kids to lose space or be moved” under the prior administration.

No one is happier about her policy change than the parents and staff at the Mickey Mantle school, a program for autistic and emotionally disturbed children that was slated to lose space and seats to the proposed expansion of Success Academy.

“Our school already lost a music, a theater arts and an art room the past few years,” said Barry Daub, principal at Mickey Mantle. Those losses happened to make room for Harlem Success 1, launched in the same building in 2006.

Mickey Mantle would have lost enrollment and even more space if Fariña had approved the Success Academy expansion.

“We would be doing physical and occupational therapy in the halls,” Daub said..

(emphasis mine)

Charter advocates don’t care.

More often than not, they do not serve the disabled community.  They lack the resources to do so, and they have absolutely no interests in developing those capabilities.

They just want to make sure that the senior executives, and their Wall Street backers stay on the gravy train. (Moscowitz, who has fewer than 7000 students in her schools, is paid more than the New York City Schools Chancellor, who manages more than a million students)

Another Nail in the Anti-Vaxxers Delusions

No Comments

Researchers have determined that indicatations of autism are present in children in the first 6 months of life:

An early indication of autism can be identified in babies under six months old, a study suggests.

US researchers, writing in Nature, analysed how infants looked at faces from birth to the age of three.

They found children later diagnosed with autism initially developed normally but showed diminished eye contact – a hallmark of autism – between two and six months of age.

A UK expert said the findings raise hope for early interventions.

In the study, researchers led by Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta used eye-tracking technology to measure the way babies looked at and responded to social clues.

They found infants later diagnosed with autism had shown a steady decline in attention to the eyes of other people from the age of two months onwards, when watching videos of natural human interactions.

Lead researcher Dr Warren Jones told BBC News: “It tells us for the first time that it’s possible to detect some signs of autism in the first months of life.

“These are the earliest signs of autism that we’ve ever observed.”

I’m not surprised by this study.

My wife pegged Charlie as being on the spectrum in his first week outside of the womb. She knew something was different in the first 5 minutes.

Of course, she is a trained special educator, so it’s in her profession.

What this means is that autism is present well before when know-nothings claim that vaccinations “cause” autism.

Can we please stop listening to Jenny McCarthy Now?

Congress Passes Hate Crimes Legislation

No Comments

Obama is expected to sign it.

One surprise:

The 68-29 vote was a victory for civil rights groups that have long sought to expand the federal statute beyond attacks motivated by religion, race, color or national origin.

The bill, which President Obama is expected to sign, includes penalties for assaults based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, disability or gender identity.

(emphasis mine)

For some reason, I thought that disability was already a protected class.

In fact, Sharon,* who does special ed consulting and advocacy, thought that the disabled were already a protected class too.

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Deep Thought

No Comments

I was talking with Sharon* about her special education consulting and advocacy business today, and told her about some friends of mine who raise Morgan horses, who would front load purchases before a given year, and then end load purchases after the end of the year, so as to create a profit every 5 years or so, because otherwise the IRS would call it a hobby, and would not allow them to deduct expenses from other income.

Then I told her that this was completely different from her business.

Then I thought about it, and told her it was completely the same as her business: Both people have to shovel loads of horsesh$#, only hers comes from school administrators.

BTW, if you kid has unmet special education needs, you want to contact her, she’s a pit bull, Or maybe a Tazmanian Devil, for her clients…..

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

An Interesting Development in Autism Spectrum Conditions

No Comments

It appears that there is a genetic link between nicotine addiction and autism, in the neurexin-1 gene, which creates an excess of neurexin-1 beta protein, which aids in nerve cells linking up with nicotine like substances to neuro receptors, in people addicted to nicotine.

It turns out that the levels of the protein, and the gene, are deficient in some people on the Autism spectrum.

It raises some interesting questions, though at this point I would be very cautious, and I think that a first step would be to compare smoking and non smoking populations of people on the spectrum.

The fact that quack physician Jeff Bradford has apparently already started putting nicotine patches on his patients should not be viewed as significant by anyone except, perhaps, for malpractice lawyers.

Giving small children nicotine is an invitation to injury or death, because a nicotine overdose can kill someone very quickly.

H/T A Photon In The Darkness.

Family Bragging Rights

No Comments

My daughter, Natalie is on the “Principal’s Honor Roll” at Franklin Middle school, which means that she is maintaining an above “B” average.

Considering the challenges Natalie has had, she had problems learning to read and she is still on an IEP,* this is a very pleasant development.

We took her out to an Italian restaurant that she rather likes by way of reward.

*Individualized education plan, a personalized plan to address the specific needs of a special education student.

Stop Jenny McCarthy

No Comments

There is a website about Jenny McCarthy, and the lies that she spreads regarding conditions on the Autism spectrum.

I have a child on the Autism Spectrum (Aspergers), and my wife noted signs at birth, and had specific concerns about a condition on the spectrum before he turned 3, but my anecdote is no more valid than McCarthy’s where she claims that vaccines cause autism, and that her son “recovered”.

Neither happen in Autism. The data is clear: there is no correlation between Autism Spectrum disorders and vaccines.

While correlation does not prove causation, lack of correlation does prove lack of causation, and this has been proved dozens of times.

As to “curing” people on the spectrum, you can’t, as is the case with children “recovering” from Autism. They aren’t broken, they are different, and so they need to learn how to bridge the gap with the rest of the world.

Measles Cases Skyrocket Because of Bad, Ignorant Parents

No Comments

Yep, it’s those vaccination flat Earthers again, with measles cases to date this year being three times more than all of last year.

I will note that a significant number of the cases are infants who are too young to get the vaccine, so the loss of herd immunity because of these harms the helpless whose bear no blame.

There is no correlation between thimerosal in particular, or vaccines in general, and autism.

While correlation does not prove causation, lack of correlation does prove causation.

What’s more the (hopefully soon to be stripped of his license) doctor who came up with the theory has a history of making up his own facts, and has a financial interest in alternatives to vaccines.

My earlier posts on the subject here.

I will note that my son is on the autism spectrum, he has Aspergers, and my wife, a special education professional trained to look for such things, spotted the first indicators in his first weeks of life. No vaccine problems there.

Vaccine Junk Science: the NY Times Almost Gets It Right

No Comments

When they have the following paragraph in a story on an Autism-Thimerosal law suit:

Every major study and scientific organization to examine the issue has found no link between vaccination and autism, but the parents and their advocates have persisted.

The get close to being right…Except that it’s paragraph 3, and it should be in paragraph 1.

A core fact on the vaccine stupidity is that there is no correlation between vaccines or Thimerosal and conditions on the Autism spectrum. Period, full stop, check my earlier posts.

It is a fraud put forward by an unethical doctor.

My Son’s IEP Meeting Tuesday

No Comments

As I’ve mentioned before, my son has Aspergers syndrome, a condition on the Autism Spectrum*, and for most of the past three years has been in a private placement, the Forbush School, a part of Shepard Pratt Health System as a result.

While this has helped him quite a bit in dealing with his problems, which are almost exclusively behavioral/social and not academic†, but he’s also very high functioning, an IQ of around 135.‡

So while Forbush has been good for him in terms of a social experience, academically, even with the very small classes they have there, he has increasingly found the academics not sufficiently challenging.

The problem with Baltimore County Public schools has always been that we have been unable to get sufficient support, and so we lawyered up, and he got placed at Forbush.

While Baltimore County could have supplied the necessary services, for less money than the Forbush tuition, they simply wouldn’t.

So, while we were all on the same page about wanting him to go back to the mainstream public school, we were concerned that he would be placed in Behavior Learning Support (BLS) class for kids with severe behavior problems, which would have him in a situation with older kids who are behind him academically, which would be the worst of all possible worlds.

So, this Tuesday, we had a meeting to get our ducks in a row for him going to Chatsworth, an area elementary school which is set up with the most special ed resources.

It was a four hour meeting, and we went through the 25 pages in his IEP. Two goals were dropped, because the staff from Chatsworth found them redundant, and there were some minor rewrites, but basically we now have a situation where he will get the support he needs

He will start at Chatsworth on Monday, and he’s both nervous and psyched. He’s already spent about 5 half-day and 2 full-day visits to Chatsworth and sat in all the classes hew will be in, basically the Gifted and Talented (G&T) program, which is good, as he started to complain about what he calls, “Boring stuff he already knows.”

*There is some dispute between the experts as to whether it is a mild form of Autism, or a separate condition that is on the spectrum. Me, I don’t care, I just want to make sure that he has the services he needs.
†He has a bit of a problem writing long essays, because he can’t keep the idea in his head long enough to physically get it out onto paper. If he dictates, he’s fine though.
‡Just today, I was explaining how X-rays work, and discussing a brief primer on wavelength and frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum. We were at the Chiropractors, and they have an X-Ray machine there, and he was curious. He picked it all up in about 30 seconds. Like I’ve said before, scary smart.

Charlie’s IEP Meeting

No Comments

Well, Charlie had an individualized education plan (IEP) meeting today.

There is consensus, that he should be moved from Forbush, a private placement to Chatsworth, which is in the public school system.

Charlie is on the Autism Spectrum (Aspergers), but he’s also talented and gifted, he rates at least a grade above his age in reading and math, and Forbush, with its focus on the more severely disabled, has difficulties in providing sufficient enrichment.

The problem is that Chatsworth is still building its Aspergers program, and he would be the only person at his level in the class if he moved in the next month, and since his issues, except for hand writing, are with social interactions, and not academics, he would either be alone, or in a class of 20+ other students (with an aide) if he went over now, so we are suggesting that it be done in September, while BCPS wants it sooner (they are paying for Forbush, which is expensive).

At this point, they want to update some of his tests, so that they can make sure that he is in a properly challenging situation, as he is scary smart.

It looks right now like he will be doing some more visits to Chatsworth to see how he handles everything.

One thing disturbed me at the meeting. His teacher looked so young. When did that happen? Teachers used to be older than me.

Thimerosal DOES NOT Cause Autism

No Comments

A study has just been completed on Autism rates following the removal Thimerosal from vaccines in 2001, and the numbers are stark, removing Thimerosol made no change in the incidence of Autism spectrum disorders. (LA Times Link)

Autism cases continued to increase in California after the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal was eliminated from most childhood vaccines, according to a new report.This suggests that exposure to thimerosal is not a primary cause of autism.

Speaking as a parent of a child on the spectrum, Charlie is a very high functioning Aspergers kid, let me state that the people arguing for this are wrong.

Every peer reviewed study has shown no correlation, and while correlation may not prove causation, a lack of correlation does prove a lack of causation.

Inoculations work. Inoculations don’t give your kid an Autism Spectrum disorder.

Get your kids vaccinated, for their good, and for the good of their classmates.

Vulture Shopping

No Comments

Well, we just came back from shopping at CompUseless, aka CompUSA.

When we got there, my son Charlie asked, why we were going there, and I replied, “Because they are going out of business because they suck, and no one wants to shop there.”

After a pause, I realized that an 8 year old might not understand the subtext, and I continued, “Since they are going out of business, they are discounting stuff, so we are hoping to find a good deal.”

He expressed wonderment, not at the idea that a business going under would discount, but because I had anticipated his next question. He’s a bright kid, but having Aspergers, sometime there are social jumps like that seem to him to be magic.

My anticipating his next question rather impressed him.

It’s noteworthy because he spends so much time confounding me with things like fairly abstruse questions about microbiology, the nature of black holes and the big bang (I send him in the direction of my elder brother, who has a PhD in high energy physics), and meteorology (he loves the Weather Channel).

We scored a UPS, a color laser printer (about $220 after discount, which will replace my wife’s ruinously expensive ink addiction), a DVD burner, and some blank DVDs.

Clinton Promises Major Increase in Autism Funding

No Comments

Full disclosure, my son is on the spectrum, very high functioning Aspergers, so I consider this statement from the front runner that she plans to increase funding for research and education to $700 million a year to be a very good thing.

By way of comparison, that figure is 7½ days in Iraq.

I once read that a majority of people in prison were learning disabled, when we neglect them, we neglect the needs of the greater society.