Some N.J. private schools for disabled students cashing in on taxpayers

[proverbialwisdom]

Source: By Christopher Baxter/The Star-Ledger

October 13, 2013

TRENTON — The payroll at Somerset Hills School reads like a family tree, with 10 relatives sprinkled throughout. Four of them earn six-figure salaries.

<>

Tucked away amid lush green meadows in Warren Township, Somerset Hills is one of about 180 private schools across the state where more than 10,000 severely disabled children go for an education when their public schools can’t handle them.

Though Somerset Hills is privately owned and run, it’s like a public school in one simple way: You pay for all of it.

A two-month Star-Ledger investigation found Somerset Hills and schools like it operate in a twilight zone of the state education system, under a unique set of rules that allows them to spend taxpayer money in ways few would tolerate of public schools.

<>

Prompted by a state auditor’s report earlier this year raising concerns about these schools, The Star-Ledger reviewed more than 8,000 pages of annual financial audits and other documents obtained from the state Department of Education under the Open Public Records Act.

The records, covering the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, for about 170 schools, reveal a laundry list of some of the most despised practices in government and paint a picture of what privatization can cost when state oversight fails to guard the public’s wallet.

Read more: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/10/nj_private_schools_students_disabilities_spotty_oversight_high_salaries_nepotism_luxury_cars_busines.html#comments

[msongs]

1. privatization - something both democrats and republican politicians can agree on and promote nt

[xfundy]

2. Gee.. where's all the savings and good-paying jobs "privatization" was supposed to bring about?

Some things should not be based on profit and should be run by government.

[wordpix]

3. how about the million$ spent/yr. by small towns to send LD students to special schools?

Before I get flamed, I agree that in a small town, there are a few students who might be so special as to need a special school. Still, a friend who had an autistic son was thrilled with what our small public school did to educate him.

What I see is parents throwing around the learning disability diagnosis to get the public to pay for private schools and transportation to/from them daily. I was shocked at how many million$ we taxpayers pay out for these services in our small town; we have a total education budget of $15 million and about 1/4 is spent on sending students to private schools. This is nothing but a racket. I work with LD kids and they certainly can be helped tremendously in public schools if there are trained, knowledgeable personnel to do that, and for far less than sending students to schools that are 30 mi. away.

I worked for one of those schools designed for LD students early in my career. As a young, green teacher, I was barely trained by the school for a week before school started in fall and was soon in over my head dealing with some very difficult kids. There was no mentoring program so I had no mentor. The school was run by a drunk and the former headmistress was having an affair with this same (married) man, who paid his wife a large salary to redecorate the main building. Yet this was considered the cream of the crop school for LD students. Today, the school wants to expand and buy a mansion on 20 ac. for the headmaster to live in (his more modest house just isn't grandiose enough for him) and is trying to get the town to change the zoning to "education" from residential so the school won't have to pay taxes.

Taxpayers are NOT getting their money's worth paying for students to go to these private schools. There is a much greater bang for the buck hiring knowledgeable, experienced instructors to work in the public schools.

[madeline_con]

15. I agree with your contention that millions are wasted....

... on LD and other special needs students who CAN be served in the public school system. In Florida we had McKay Scholarships. I recall many instances when teachers would encourage parents to try to get them, just to rid themselves of the headache of the helicopter parents who called almost daily with grievances about EVERYTHING.


OTOH, I also believe some students don't belong there due to severe disabilities that require specialized training. When I worked with special needs, we had zero training on anything, even how to move students from wheelchairs to changing tables. Luckily, I'd had the training in direct care facilities for adults before I was hired there. We even had a lazy nurse who wanted us (assistant staff) to administer Rx barbiturates to one little girl "as needed" for seizures. I refused, explained my case, and the teachers backed us op on that one, thank goodness.


I don't understand why their seems to be no cap on spending per capita in the private schools in the article. It opens the door for just such abuses of tax money.

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Lawmaker: Spending by N.J. private schools for disabled students 'disturbing', reform coming

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/10/lawmaker_says_spending_by_nj_private_schools_for_disabled_students_disturbing_calls_for_reform.html#incart_river_default

Lawmaker: Spending by N.J. private schools for disabled students 'disturbing', reform coming

By Christopher Baxter/The Star-Ledger
on October 14, 2013 at 1:05 PM, updated October 14, 2013 at 1:18 PM

TRENTON — The spending of taxpayer money at the state's private schools for disabled students is "disturbing," and the Legislature should make cracking down on oversight a top priority, a leading lawmaker said today.

Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), the chair of the lower house's Education Committee, said he was "very surprised" by the Star-Ledger investigation published Sunday showing how these private schools can spend in ways public schools cannot.

"Regardless of how positive one's motives are, and I believe these particular institutions are clearly an asset to the most vulnerable population, that doesn't mean they should not have the same accountability and transparency as public schools," Diegnan said.

Diegnan said he intended to tackle the problem — either through regulation or new laws — after the November election when the Legislature gets back to work.

<>

[proverbialwisdom]

5. Related, broadly speaking.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/07/12175/cashing-kids139-alec-bills-2013-promote-private-profit-education-model

SPECIAL REPORT

Cashing in on Kids: 139 ALEC Bills in 2013 Promote a Private, For-Profit Education Model
by Brendan Fischer — July 16, 2013 - 7:55am

Despite widespread public opposition to the education privatization agenda, at least 139 bills or state budget provisions reflecting American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) education bills have been introduced in 43 states and the District of Columbia in just the first six months of 2013, according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of ALECexposed.org. Thirty-one have become law.

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch has called public education a "a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed."

But this "transformation" of public education -- from an institution that serves the public into one that serves private for-profit interests -- has been in progress for decades, thanks in large part to ALEC.

ALEC boasts on the "history" section of its website that it first started promoting "such 'radical' ideas as a (educational) voucher system" in 1983 -- the same year as the Reagan administration's "Nation At Risk" report -- taking up ideas first articulated decades earlier by ALEC supporter Milton Friedman.

<>

[proverbialwisdom]

6. Again, broadly related.

* Advocates estimate that over the next decade some 500,000 such individuals will come of age in the United States.

* New Jersey’s last housing wait-list for the developmentally disabled was 8,000 names long.
* Almost every one of his constituents knows someone with autism, the second-term (Ramsey, NJ) Republican mayor said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/garden/the-architecture-of-autism.html?_r=1&

The Architecture of Autism

Peace, Purpose and a Pool: Sweetwater Spectrum, a California residence for autistic adults, hopes to become a model for like-minded experiments across the country.

By MICHAEL TORTORELLO
Published: October 9, 2013

SONOMA, Calif. — Here is a truth about children with autism: they grow up to become adults with autism. Advocates estimate that over the next decade some 500,000 such individuals will come of age in the United States.

<>

What needs to be said here is how limited the dreams have been for parents after their autistic children age-out of the school-based support system at 22.

<>

Sammy’s autism is profound. He can’t tell time or read the calendar, said his mother, Terri Rosenblum. “But he has some sense: he feels like he should be coming home,” Ms. Rosenblum, 53, said. “The longer the spacing between the visits, the worse his behaviors would become.”

That is about to change. In about a month, Sammy will be moving into Airmount Woods, a new eight-unit residence developed by Bergen County’s United Way and operated by the service agency New Horizons in Autism. “It’s going to be about 10 miles from our front door,” Mr. Rosenblum said. “The family will become an integral part of his life.”

The twin four-bedroom houses will use some of the latest concepts in building for autism. But the real innovation may be the way it promotes special-needs housing as a community asset. That term is not just a stock phrase. Airmount Woods belongs to a nonprofit group called Ramsey Housing Inc., formed by the Borough of Ramsey. The mayor, Christopher Botta, sits on the board, and he dropped by on a recent morning to show off the project. Almost every one of his constituents knows someone with autism, the second-term Republican mayor said. This isn’t housing for strangers.

<>

Since 2000, the partnership has created 110 beds, more than half for supportive living. And projects in the pipeline will create residences for 24 more adults with autism. Mr. Toronto said, “We’d like to have a home for everyone.” They have a ways to go: New Jersey’s last housing wait-list for the developmentally disabled was 8,000 names long.

<>

Link from: http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/10/dachel-media-review-autisms-forever-children-growing-up.html

[proverbialwisdom]

7. It's not about the money for me, however, "ASD costs the nation $137 billion a year..."

http://najms.net/wp-content/uploads/v06i03.pdf#page=34

A Special Issue of NAJMS: ADVANCES IN AUTISM 2013
Preface to the special issue of autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the fastest-growing complex neurodevelopment disorder, continues to rise in its prevalence, now affecting up to 1 in 50 children in the USA, and averaging 1% globally, according to the latest CDC report. More children will be diagnosed with ASD this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined in the USA. ASD costs the nation $137 billion a year and this debt is expected to increase in the next decade. Hence, ASD has become a huge healthcare burden and global threat, categorized by the CDC as a national public health crisis.

<>

Xuejun Kong, MD
Editor-in-Chief, NAJMS
Department of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Harvard Medical School

Christopher J. McDougle, MD
Guest Editor, NAJMS
Lurie Center for Autism Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School

[proverbialwisdom]

8. Chicago Tribune: Famed columnist Mike Royko's son updates his family's struggles with severe autism.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-oped-1025-zorn-20131025,0,2887992.column

Understanding autism
Mike Royko's son updates his family's experience with its 'greatest tragedy'

Eric Zorn
October 24, 2013

David and Karen Royko had many advantages, including a steady income, health insurance, a helpful school district and supportive parents. But the cost of dealing with their son Ben's severe autism pushed them into bankruptcy and, earlier this year, caused them to lose their home and move in with her parents.

David Royko, 54, son of the legendary, late Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko, touches on these financial strains in his latest book, "The Chronicles of Ben: Adventures in Autism." Please see: http://www.davidroyko.com/chroniclesofbenbook.htm

<>

And honest talk about the ravages — and occasional joys — of having a child with severe autism has been a hallmark of Royko's writing on the subject over the past decade, much of which is collected in "The Chronicles of Ben."

The book, now available only in electronic format, begins with the 4,000-word narrative published in 2003 by the Chicago Reader under the headline, "More than a handful."

<>

He's 20 and living in a residential educational setting outside of Cleveland at a cost to Illinois of about $800 per school day.

Still, Royko estimates that uncompensated costs of Ben's care, including the family's regular visits to Cleveland, run more than $30,000 a year. So even though he was able to keep his full-time job — he's a psychologist and clinical director of the Marriage and Family Counseling Service at Cook County Circuit Court and has authored several books on other topics — he and Karen blew through their savings, including their inheritance from Mike Royko, who died in 1997, and joined the ranks of Americans bankrupted by medical costs.

The future is less certain. Ben's schooling support will end when he turns 22, and though the Affordable Care Act will allow him to remain on his parents' insurance until he's 26, it's not clear where he'll go or who will meet his nearly nonstop need for therapeutic attention in the years ahead.

"I'm not asking people to feel bad for us," said Royko. "I just want them to understand."

[KamaAina]

12. The "tragedy" is that society is ill-equipped to handle us

in large part because it views us as "tragedies" rather than as people.

and though the Affordable Care Act will allow him to remain on his parents' insurance until he's 26,

After that, since he has a disability, he'll be on Medicaid.

He's 20 and living in a residential educational setting outside of Cleveland at a cost to Illinois of about $800 per school day.

Still, Royko estimates that uncompensated costs of Ben's care, including the family's regular visits to Cleveland, run more than $30,000 a year.

There's no "residential educational setting" (institution) like that in Chicagoland?

[proverbialwisdom]

16. YOU have absolutely nothing in common with BenRoyko except an artificial construct making you allies

Last edited Wed Nov 27, 2013, 02:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Please don't misunderstand me. That's not the issue, though. Things are drastically wrong at the moment for far too many and unlikely to improve without massive grassroots constructive input. Infighting, apparently the norm, is counterproductive.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-oped-1025-zorn-20131025,0,2887992.column

Understanding autism
Mike Royko's son updates his family's experience with its 'greatest tragedy'

By Eric Zorn, Change of Subject
October 24, 2013

David and Karen Royko had many advantages, including a steady income, health insurance, a helpful school district and supportive parents. But the cost of dealing with their son Ben's severe autism pushed them into bankruptcy and, earlier this year, caused them to lose their home and move in with her parents.

David Royko, 54, son of the legendary, late Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko, touches on these financial strains in his latest book, "The Chronicles of Ben: Adventures in Autism."

"It's hard to face, to admit to, to talk about, to even think about," said Royko. But such hardships reflect "the reality for so many others" in his family's situation, he said. "We couldn't honestly talk about our situation any longer without talking about the financial impact," he said.

And honest talk about the ravages — and occasional joys — of having a child with severe autism has been a hallmark of Royko's writing on the subject over the past decade, much of which is collected in "The Chronicles of Ben."

The book, now available only in electronic format, begins with the 4,000-word narrative published in 2003 by the Chicago Reader under the headline, "More than a handful."

He describes being on a walk with the boy, then 8 but already 5 feet tall and 150 pounds, when an inexplicable tantrum begins: "Ben stops, does a standing bunny hop, screams, and hits himself with full force and with both hands twice in the sides of his head, bends forward at the waist, flings himself back up straight, screams a sobbing screech, smashes himself in the face with his left hand, and sobs loudly."

That account is followed by a story published four years later in the Tribune magazine in which Ben is a foot taller, weighs 250 pounds and remains unpredictable and inaccessible:

"You could be sitting comfortably with Ben, looking at a book or a TV show, and before you had time to react, his hand would dart out and put a deep scratch into your arm, or his elbow would land a hard blow to your chest, or his arm would snap back and smash your nose and send your glasses flying, or his head would butt your head or shoulder. These are not involuntary, spastic motions, but deliberate actions, meant to, well, who knows? Meant to inflict pain? Meant to be playful? Meant to elicit a reaction? All of the above? We just don't know, even if we sometimes think we do."

And in both there are harrowing descriptions of the boy's use of defecation to express himself.

"My motive for writing those first pieces was mostly to let friends know what we were going through and why we'd dropped out of contact with them," he said. "At the time, most people didn't have a clue what life was like inside the four walls of a house dealing with severe autism."

They thought of the quirky, withdrawn savant played by Dustin Hoffman in the 1988 movie "Rain Man" or the socially delayed child said to be "on the autism spectrum."

"I understand the desire of many people with high-functioning autism to be seen not as disordered, but only different," Royko writes in the introduction. "That is not the case for Ben and his cohorts. For them, there is no upside to autism. It is a disorder, and a terrible one."

He adds, "That doesn't mean Ben is terrible. Most of the time, he's a delightful guy, who often cracks us up with his quirky and funny ways, or melts us with his cuteness. We love him as virtually all parents love their kids. But that doesn't mean we see his autism through magic, rosy glasses. Ben's autism is his, and our, greatest tragedy."

<>

Steel yourself, look at the photos. Then, if you read what these parents write about their personal experiences, we all might just start to help.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/11/wanna-see-autisms-gift.html
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/11/theresa-cedillo-mother-of-vaccine-injured-daughter-on-issa-delaying-of-vicp-hearing.html
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/11/issa-vaccine-injury-compensation-meet-ronan-jameson.html
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/11/iacc-testimony-by-michelle-guppy-mother-of-vaccine-injured-son.html

[KamaAina]

17. An artificial construct, you say?

How do you know this? Are you personally acquainted with either of us?

I have nothing in common with him because I speak and he doesn't? How do you even know that I speak? I know of several nonverbal Autistic people who blog.

https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/

http://nonspeakingautisticspeaking.blogspot.com/

P.S. Age of Autism is an outlet for Jenny McCarthy-style woo. You might want to find another source.

[proverbialwisdom]

18. "Heterogeneity presents a real challenge for clinicians in the field in terms of dx and treatment."

http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/advancing-clinical-practice-through-recognition-autism-subtypes

Advancing Clinical Practice Through Recognition of Autism Subtypes

Date: March 19, 2008

To the well-informed autism community, the remarkably different ways in which autism may affect one individual from the next is perhaps noting the obvious .

Beyond the core domains of autism, parents know all too well that their child may have a host of accompanying gastrointestinal problems as one of their major issues, while others may report sleep difficulties as a significant factor – and the list certainly doesn't end there.

Increased awareness and study of this phenomenon may one day point to a multiplicity of underlying causes or potentially just different presentations of a handful of the same causes. One thing for certain is that this heterogeneity presents a real challenge for clinicians in the field in terms of diagnostic and treatment concerns. Comprehending and describing various subgroups of autism might be a way to advance the field of autism research and inch us closer toward efficiently prescribed treatment strategies.

<>

I don't presume speech is the most important concern, health and happiness is.

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

by Naoki Higashida (Author) , KA Yoshida (Translator) , David Mitchell (Translator)

[proverbialwisdom]

19. Thanks for the links, though I won't read them until after the holiday. Save these for later, too.

The field is rapidly evolving. In part, VICP hearings will clarify matters. Meanwhile, see the IACC Workshop in its entirety and Drs. Mumper and Herbert in NAJMS.

http://www.ebcala.org/areas-of-law/vaccine-law/chairman-issa-postpones-vicp-hearing
http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol28/iss2/6/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/115393658/Andrew-Zimmerman

Andrew Zimmerman / Poling v HHS Exhibit 3

Published by Heather Rhodes White

In a second case Zimmerman was called to give his expert report on was Poling v. HHS. He revised his testimony, which was in complete contradiction from Cedillo v. HHS. His report to the Special Masters;

“The cause for regressive encephalopathy in Hannah (Poling) at age 19 months was underlying mitochondrial dysfunction, exacerbated by vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation that exceeded metabolic energy reserves. This acute expenditure of metabolic reserves led to permanent irreversible brain injury. Thus, if not for this event, Hannah may have led a normal full productive life. Presently, I predict Hannah will have a normal lifespan but with significant lifelong disability.”

http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=13225

Air date: Friday, November 15, 2013, 8:45:00 AM
Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local

Category: Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee
Runtime: 07:33:03

Description: The workshop will feature discussions between IACC members and external subject matter and community experts regarding updates from the field and from the community that the committee may consider when developing the 2013 update of the IACC Strategic Plan.

http://najms.net/wp-content/uploads/v06i03.pdf#page=34

Preface to the special issue of autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the fastest-growing complex neurodevelopment disorder, continues to rise in its prevalence, now affecting up to 1 in 50 children in the USA, and averaging 1% globally, according to the latest CDC report. More children will be diagnosed with ASD this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined in the USA. ASD costs the nation $137 billion a year and this debt is expected to increase in the next decade. Hence, ASD has become a huge healthcare burden and global threat, categorized by the CDC as a national public health crisis.

ASD is characterized by social-communication impairment, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, which cause significant disability for those affected. With its etiology still largely unknown, and its pathophysiology poorly understood, ASD currently has no universally accepted therapy. ASD is affecting more and more families; unmet services and limited resources need to be addressed urgently. Researchers, clinicians, healthcare providers, social agencies and government need to coordinate efforts to develop more effective treatments and a satisfactory continuum of care, across the lifespan. Ultimately, a cure needs to be sought for the various subtypes of ASD that exist.

The current issue of North American Journal of Medicine and Science (NAJMS) represents a continuation of our previous two special issues on autism (NAJMS Vol. 5 Issue 3 and Vol. 4 Issue 3) published in July 2012 and July 2011, respectively. In this issue, we are honored to have another panel of expert researchers and clinicians on the frontlines of ASD research and treatment to present their newest research findings and views from different perspectives.

This issue of NAJMS consists of five original research articles, two comprehensive reviews, one case report and two commentary articles, covering topics in genetics, pathogenesis, metabolic disorder biomarkers of ASD, and a clinical study, that bring into focus our newest understanding and treatment strategies.

<>

The data presented in Dr. Mumper’s review of the medical literature, suggests that ASD may be impacted by environmental toxicants, duration of breastfeeding, gut flora composition, nutritional status, acetaminophen use, vaccine practices and use of antibiotics and/or frequency of infections. In her current general pediatric practice (Advocates for Children), she has noted a modest trend toward a lower prevalence of ASD than in her previous pediatric practice or recent prevalence estimates from the CDC.

<>

The final commentary was written by Dr. Herbert, who presents her paper entitled “Everyday Epigenetics from Molecular Intervention to Public Health and Lifestyle Medicine.” She asserts that it may well take a grass roots epigenetic/lifestyle medicine revolution to avert the worsening health trends we are facing in the setting of a progressively more toxic and endangered planet. She posits that everyday epigenetics can inform science of what is possible so that society can respond on an appropriate scale to the magnitude of the crisis we are facing.

<>

Xuejun Kong, MD
Editor-in-Chief, NAJMS
Department of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Harvard Medical School

Christopher J. McDougle, MD
Guest Editor, NAJMS
Lurie Center for Autism Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101672031

[proverbialwisdom]

20. Last thing, you're a Yalie, right? So's AOA Editor Dan Olmsted, among his manyother accomplishments.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/danolmsted

Dan Olmsted is Editor of the blog Age of Autism (ageofautism.com). He has been a journalist for 35 years and was an original staff member of USA Today and Senior Editor of USA WEEKEND and United Press International. He lives in Falls Church City, Virginia and is a member of the National Press Club.

http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Age_of_Autism

AOA Editors

Yale College graduate Dan Olmsted is an investigative reporter who focuses his research on autism and related pervasive developmental disorders. His research includes investigations of the Amish community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a community that has very few cases of autism. Dan is the coauthor of the book Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine and a Man-made Epidemic. Age of Autism is a collaborative effort between Olmstad and Mark Blaxill, the Editor-at-Large for the Age of Autism. Blaxill is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School. He is the parent of a child with autism.

For other work he's done, GOOGLE: lariam site:ageofautism.com (145 results). Related: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014598418

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/04/drugs-death-and-the-manufacture-of-doubt.html

Posted by Age of Autism at April 26, 2009
Drugs, Death and the Manufacture of Doubt
By Dan Olmsted

I hope regular readers of this site will indulge a fairly extended incursion into a topic that, on the surface, is unrelated to autism but that connects at a deep level with our point and purpose. It concerns what I would call an analogous situation, and analogies sometimes have just as much power as direct argument and evidence.

This piece is triggered by two articles written last week on The Huffington Post by Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher magazine and nine books including “Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq.” Greg is one of the really smart guys orbiting the media universe, and was among the first to raise questions about the weak and wobbly performance of the press in covering the so-called “war on terror.”

My own experience with Greg comes from something he wrote in March 2004: “My vote for Iraq reporter of the year goes to a low-profile journalist who did not cover the war itself and has never even been to Baghdad. His name is Mark Benjamin, 33, and he serves as investigations editor for United Press International out of Washington, D.C. E&P has documented his work since last autumn, and now the heavy hitters - The New York Times and The Washington Post - are following his lead, taking a long look at the forgotten American victims of the war: the injured, the traumatized, and the suicides.”

At that point, Mark and I were colleagues at UPI -- I was his editor on those stories, although we were first and foremost co-conspirators in trying to bring attention to the woeful way the military was treating its soldiers and veterans. We had already been working together a couple of years at that point, starting in early 2002 with an investigative series on an anti-malaria drug called Lariam. The Army invented it as older malaria pills were losing effectiveness during the Vietnam era, and rushed it onto the market with inadequate testing under a licensing deal with Roche. It didn’t take long for the pharmaceutical version of “sin in haste, repent at leisure” effect to appear -- by the late 1980s, severe mental problems that included suicide and aggressive behavior were showing up in the military and also in the general traveling population, which was being prescribed Lariam as the new wonder drug.

<>

Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

[KamaAina]

21. Sure, but did he make cum laude?

I could just as easily counter by pointing out that Gee Dubya Boosh is a Yale College graduate, therefore Olmsted must be a warmongering dunce.

[proverbialwisdom]

22. Editor-at-Large Mark Blaxill would be the summa cum laude graduate of an Ivy league school at AOA.

http://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/title/the-age-of-autism/

Mark Blaxill is the parent of a daughter diagnosed with autism...

Blaxill is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton, and graduated with distinction from the Harvard Business School.

[KamaAina]

23. Boosh went to Havard Business School, too.

Other Ivy League dunces of note include Ted Cruz (Harvard) and Donald Trump (Penn).

[proverbialwisdom]

24. You're adamant now. You will or won't change your mind in the future. I think you might.

Last edited Fri Nov 29, 2013, 12:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Consider Michio Kaku's 180-degree transformation over time, as analogous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michio_Kaku

...attracted the attention of physicist Edward Teller (known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller), who took Kaku as a protégé, awarding him the Hertz Engineering Scholarship. Kaku graduated summa cum laude at Harvard University in 1968 and was first in his physics class. He attended the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and received a Ph.D. in 1972, and that same year held a lectureship at Princeton University.

Kaku credits his anti-nuclear war position to programs he heard on the Pacifica Radio network during his student years in California. It was during this period that he made the decision to turn away from a career developing the next generation of nuclear weapons in association with Edward Teller and focused on research, teaching, writing and media.[citation needed] Kaku joined with others such as Helen Caldicott, Jonathan Schell and Peace Action, and was instrumental in building a global anti-nuclear weapons movement that arose in the 1980s during the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan

[KamaAina]

13. Any time I see something like "It will cost socity $3 million a year each to care for these kids"

my response, after the eye roll , is "Show me the money! I'll take perfectly good care of myself for $3 million, thank you very much!"

[proverbialwisdom]

9. Update: N.J. freezes placements at treatment center tied to private special-needs school

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/10/nj_officials_freeze_placements_at_treatment_center_tied_to_private_special-needs_school.html#incart_m-rpt-1

N.J. freezes placements at treatment center tied to private special-needs school

By Christopher Baxter/The Star-Ledger
on October 27, 2013 at 7:02 AM, updated October 27, 2013 at 7:40 AM

TRENTON — State authorities have suspended placements and removed some residents from one of New Jersey’s private treatment centers for boys after several complaints prompted an investigation, The Star-Ledger has learned.

A spokesman for the state Department of Children and Families, Ernest Landante, confirmed the state stopped sending children to the Somerset Hills Residential Treatment Center in Warren Township in March after receiving the complaints.

The suspension was not announced but came to light after a Star-Ledger investigation into spending at New Jersey’s private schools for students with disabilities, including the Somerset Hills School, which is closely tied to the treatment center.

The paper found Somerset Hills and about 180 private schools like it are allowed to spend taxpayer money in ways public schools cannot, fueling nepotism, high salaries, fancy cars, generous pensions and questionable business deals.

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[proverbialwisdom]

10. Scary bad.

http://www.njjewishnews.com/article/18974/timely-help-for-those-on-autism-spectrum#.UnO03akTub8

Timely help for those on autism spectrum

by Sara Mendez
October 30, 2013

Autism spectrum disorders are a set of complex developmental disorders associated with the well-known challenges of social and communication difficulties.

Jewish Family Service of MetroWest’s entry into this arena, with its trained clinicians, is timely. According to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012, one in 49 children in New Jersey has an ASD, a rate of double the number of cases over the prior study in 2007." New Jersey records the second most prevalent rate among 14 states tested nationwide.

According to the study, 80 percent of these cases have been diagnosed as “severe.” The average age of diagnosis in New Jersey is just over three years. As a result of this troubling growth in diagnoses, multiple interventions and approaches to working with children diagnosed with ASD have been developed. Each child with ASD is unique, so intervention plans can be tailored to address such individual needs.

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COMMENTS:

Paul G. King
October 31, 2013
Regarding the NJ 1 in 49 rate, given the sex ratio (Male to female) reported, it is obvious that those children with lesser levels of damage are being disproprotionately missed.

Hopefully, because NJ is one of the states with 2 “independent” sources of diagnosed individuals with some overlap between the sets, the NJ publis health officials can be encouraged to perform the appropriate statistical adjustment for underascertainment and correct the 1 in 49 number for that under counting.

Were this to be done, it i likely that the underascertainment-corrected rate for children with an ASD diagnosis in NJ would probably be closer to 1 in 25 than it is to the reported raw records’ level of 1 in 49.

[proverbialwisdom]

11. Update.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/11/nj_to_cut_ties_with_treatment_center_for_children_after_safety_concerns_emerge.html#incart_m-rpt-1

Christie administration to cut ties with treatment center for children after safety concerns
By Christopher Baxter/The Star-Ledger
on November 24, 2013 at 12:10 AM, updated November 24, 2013 at 12:15 AM

TRENTON — When state authorities froze placements and removed some residents from one of New Jersey’s private treatment facilities earlier this year, they made no announcement of the action and later declined to say what went wrong at an institution that has been taking in children for four decades.

But a report recently obtained by The Star-Ledger makes clear that the state found serious trouble inside Somerset Hills Residential Treatment Center. On Wednesday, two days after the newspaper inquired about the findings, the state disclosed it was cutting ties with the facility Dec. 31.

The report, released under the state Open Public Records Act, alleges a litany of alarming practices: children subjected to unwarranted physical restraint, incident reports with inaccurate and incomplete information, medical records missing documentation and deficient treatment plans.

State inspectors also said in the report that children at the treatment center had been confined to an office for "excessive periods of time" as punishment for acting out, a practice the state later demanded the center discontinue "immediately."

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[KamaAina]

14. NYC uses schools like these as a back-door way for the state to subsidize city schools

The special ed classes in NYC schools are generally used to warehouse underperforming black and Latino kids. Kids with actual disabilities go to one of the many small state-funded schools like the one I used to work at. It was in a converted loft building with no driveway or anything, so the staff had to line up each morning, in the freezing cold and snow, to make sure the kids got from the buses in to the school safely. Plus, the teachers had to move classrooms full of Autistic children from floor to floor on what were basically friehg t elevators!