TAXES PAY DISABILITY TUITION
(October 27, 2007) As of 2005, more than 88,000 disabled students were educated in private settings at taxpayer expense, an increase of 34 percent over a decade, according to the National School Boards Association. School districts often acknowledge they cannot provide an adequate education and willingly pay for private tuition. More...

AUTISM GROWTH CHALLENGES SCHOOLS
(November 2, 2007) Explosive growth in the number of Long Island students diagnosed with autism and other neurological disorders is pitting parents who seek greater help for their children against school officials struggling to contain special-education costs. The number of school-age youngsters classified as autistic has jumped nearly 50 percent during the past three years alone, to more than 3,000. Figures at state and national levels have increased more than threefold over 10 years, making autism the fastest-growing impairment among American youths. More...

CENSUS DATA INDICATES INVOLVEMENT
(November 3, 2007) US parents are reading to their children more and placing more restrictions on television viewing. "It appears parents are more involved with their kids than they were 10 years ago," says Jane Dye, a family demographer with the US Census Bureau who helped compile the data from the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation. More...

FEAR 'STOPS CHILD DEVELOPMENT'
(November 3, 2007) Tim Gill, an author in the UK affirms "Youngsters are missing out on their childhood because we over-protect them." A reluctance to let children take risks could stop them developing vital skills needed to protect themselves, he adds. More...

DIAGNOSIS FOR AUTISTIC FUNDING
(November 4, 2007) In the latest estimate, as many as one in 150 children have some form of autism disorder nationally. However, the recent explosion of cases appears to be mostly caused by a surge in special education services funding for autistic children, and by a corresponding shift in what doctors call autism from other categories. More...

TEXAS YOUTH COMMISSION FAILING
(November 4, 2007) An investigation by The Dallas Morning News found the Texas Youth Commission, still struggling with the fallout from an abuse scandal, fails to properly educate and rehabilitate many of its inmates.

FTC TO INVESTIGATE PRIVATE PROGRAMS
(November 4, 2007) US Representative George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate allegations of deceptive marketing practices by residential treatment programs for troubled children. More...

OVER-TESTING HARMFUL
(November 5, 2007) An article posted on Telegraph.co.uk reported on a major study showing the repeated testing of young children is seriously undermining their education. Children age 11 spend almost three weeks practicing and sitting through tests in their final year of primary school in England - while teachers waste five weeks preparing exams. Despite claims that children are brighter than ever, researchers said the system of high-stakes tests had "exaggerated" pupils' progress, with up to one-third given the wrong grades. In a damning conclusion, the report says £500 million spent on Labour's National Literacy Strategy had been wasted, as children's ability to read was no better than in the 1950s.

RITALIN VERSUS THERAPY
(November 12, 2007) A study obtained by the BBC's Panorama programme says drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta work no better than therapy after three years of treatment.

LD STUDENTS GET COLLEGE HELP
(November 15, 2007) Carol Funckes, Associate Director of Disability Resources at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, says that approximately 1,600 of the University's 36,000 students identify themselves as disabled. About 1,100 of those have learning disabilities, a 100-fold increase from the 11 students who received help for learning disabilities in 1980. LD students may apply for additional assistance from the University's Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques Center (SALT). Each student in the SALT Program has access to tutoring as well as computer, math and writing labs, and is assigned a learning specialist with whom he or she meets weekly to evaluate how the semester is progressing and if any further help is needed. More...

RECOVERY COMMUNITIES IN FLORIDA
(November 15, 2007) According to the New York Times, Delray Beach has become a funky outpost of sobriety located between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Delray Beach is the epicenter of the country's largest and most vibrant recovery community, with scores of halfway houses, more than 5,000 people at 12-Step meetings each week, recovery radio shows, a recovery motorcycle club and a coffeehouse that boasts its own therapy group. Recovering substance abusers are also sinking roots in Arizona, Southern California and the Gold Coast of Florida.

SCHOOLS BALK AT DISCIPLINE DISCLOSURE
(November 17, 2007) The Boston Globe reported high schools across the country are resisting demands from hundreds of colleges to disclose student's criminal and disciplinary records on applications, worried that minor offenses could stigmatize applicants as troublemakers and keep them from being accepted.

BULLYING INCREASING IN JAPAN
(November 17, 2007) The Daily Yomiuri Online (Japan) reported nearly 125,000 cases of bullying were identified in Japan's schools during the 2006 academic year--a six fold increase from the previous year, according to the results of an Education, Science and Technology Ministry survey announced Thursday.