 |
Main Menu |
|
|
 Home Community Members options Search Web
|
|
|
|
|
Survey |
|
|
How many children are on the spectrum in your family?
|
|
|
|
|
News- Page 15
|
Education : Work with autistic children gets recognition
|
|
|
Posted by Sylvia on Friday, April 30, 2004 (09:44:02)
The Maui News 16/04/2004
WAILUKU - A Maui Youth & Family Services autism consultant has been named a Ho'olaulima No Na Keiki Circle awardee - one of five statewide - for her work with young children.
Sandrina Redfearn, a consultant for a 3-year-old boy, received the award sponsored by Good Beginnings Alliance last week on Oahu. There were more than 125 nominees for the award, which were whittled down to 10 semifinalists and then to five award winners.
She works with the child, family, school and skill trainers to implement a treatment plan that targets specific needs such as communication, socialization and life skills, a statement from Maui Youth & Family Services said.
Redfearn has a degree in early childhood elementary education with specializations in special education and the Montessori teaching method.
A special education teacher for the past 15 years, she is currently a Wailuku Elementary School instructor and has been an autism consultant with MYFS for the past year. She has worked with about 15 autistic children ages 1 to 3.
Redfearn is currently working with Kyle Fuchikami, son of Grant and Tess Fuchikami. The parents say Redfearn has been instrumental in helping their son develop.
"Sandrina has spent hours with our son," they said in a news release.
She uses a picture-exchange system to help him communicate, develops visual schedules and a conducts a "host of other activities which, we feel, is responsible for his progress. She has been instrumental in facilitating his tremendous gains across a variety of settings," they said.
Redfearn attributes the boy's success to her being able to work with him at a young age.
"When I first started, he had no communication skills at all and would not even make eye contact with you," she said. "Today, you wouldn't even recognize him as the same boy. He's made great strides."
She enjoys the work.
"It's extremely challenging, but very rewarding when one day they don't need you anymore," she said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
comments? |   |
|
|
|
|
Education : Special education policy 'a disaster'
|
|
|
Posted by Sylvia on Friday, April 30, 2004 (09:16:07)
UC BBC Online 16/04/2004
Teachers say the policy of including more and more children with special educational needs in mainstream schools is a costly disaster.
The annual conference of the NASUWT teachers' union has called for the official "inclusion" policy to be redefined.
It wants the reinstatement of fully-funded alternatives for pupils with behavioural difficulties.
In 1983, there were 1,562 special schools in England. In 2003, there were 1,160.
The numbers of children with the most severe needs who are in mainstream schools has gone up 49% in the past decade.
'Challenging'
The proposer of the resolution, Croydon English teacher Amanda Haehner, said the traditional system of special schools allowed those who needed it to access an appropriate education delivered by well-trained experts.
But the policy of "inclusion" meant pupils who needed special help were subjected to "the rigours of the national curriculum" and testing.
So the most vulnerable experienced failure over and over again - and not surprisingly became disaffected.
In February, the English education inspectorate, Ofsted, said special needs pupils should be set "challenging" targets in an effort to raise standards.
The NASUWT conference has already expressed its alarm at the disruption caused by children who exhibit what is termed "challenging" behaviour.
One child screaming, swearing, hitting others and running around was hard enough for a teacher to cope with, Ms Haehner said - at what point did the job become undo-able when there were several in a class?
But it is not only a matter of disruption. A child with emotional difficulties might be extremely withdrawn, not violent - but needing almost one-to-one attention.
And the NASUWT's deputy general secretary, Chris Keates, said the problem was that special schools had been seen as a form of exclusion - whereas they were a mainstream part of the education system as a whole.
She acknowledged that parents of different children with particular needs could be very divided on whether their children should be in mainstream schools or in special schools.
"I suppose the ideal is to have both," she said, "but that's a funding issue."
Yet part of the union's case is that "inclusion" is an expensive practice.
Where children could be in a mainstream school they should be, Ms Keates said.
But those with behavioural problems were being admitted without the proper resources to meet their needs.
"Schools are spending months if not years acquiring those resources and not able to give the child the education they deserve - and to the detriment of the majority of children.
"Special units and specially-trained teachers have got to be cheaper than trying to replicate that in every single school."
A spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills said: "It is important to strike the right balance between giving teachers the power to deal with children who have behavioural problems and giving children the best opportunity to learn.
"We believe we have struck the right balance."
The department recently published a new 10-year special needs strategy.
The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, complained at the time that there was too much variation in provision in different parts of the country.
"This situation, where children still face real barriers to learning and parents lack confidence in the commitment and capacity of our schools to meet their child's needs, cannot be allowed to continue," he said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
comments? | |
|
|
|
|
Education : UC Davis, St. HOPE Partner for Special-Needs Preschool
|
|
|
Posted by Sylvia on Friday, April 30, 2004 (09:09:27)
UC Davis News 15/04/2004
With a seed grant of $100,000, the School of Education at the University of California, Davis, along with the university's M.I.N.D. Institute and St. HOPE Public Schools, are poised to establish a preschool with a focus on special needs -- rare in the country for the services it will provide.
The grant, awarded by the First 5 Sacramento Commission, will be used to hire a planning director for the preschool, targeted to open in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento in fall 2005.
The resulting program will be among just a handful of similar ones in the United States that combine preschool services with educational interventions based on brain research. The partnership will integrate diverse disciplines such as neuroscience, behavioral assessments, early childhood education research and family participation.
"We believe that by collaborating and sharing our resources and expertise," said Dean Harold Levine of the School of Education, "we can establish an exemplary urban preschool that brings research directly into the classroom and focuses on the unique intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of children with special needs."
The preschool will serve about 100 children under age 6. At least 20 percent will have special needs (such as autism, and speech and language disorders), have emotional disturbances or be at risk for learning disabilities. Although the focus will be on serving the Oak Park neighborhood, children from throughout the region will attend.
"It's an exciting opportunity to translate what we're learning about brain development into a preschool setting to help children grow healthy brains," says Robert Hendren, executive director of the M.I.N.D. Institute at the UC Davis Medical Center.
He adds that the institute will assist in the development of programs and offer innovative interventions based on what has been learned about neurodevelopment.
"We know that nationally, about 2 percent of the 0 to 5 population are special-needs children," said Margaret Fortune, superintendent for St. HOPE Public Schools. "But in the inner city, the representation is far greater."
The higher levels of learning disabilities among urban preschoolers, she said, translate into far greater numbers of students in urban high schools with special education needs.
Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, chair of First 5 Sacramento, said backing the project was a logical choice for the commission, which uses Proposition 10 tobacco taxes to fund projects that support the healthy development of children, empower families and strengthen communities.
"This proposal offers an extraordinary opportunity to combine several objectives of the commission, including advancing school readiness, particularly for special-needs children and children from disadvantaged circumstances, and laying the foundation for research that can assist children and families for generations to come," he said.
St. HOPE is a nonprofit public benefit organization dedicated to revitalizing underserved communities through public education, leadership training and economic development.
The collaboration of St. HOPE and UC Davis in this project builds on UC Davis' more than 20-year involvement in the Oak Park neighborhood, including partnerships with Sacramento High School, now a charter school run by St. HOPE, and Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary School.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
comments? | |
|
|
|
|
Education : Schools’ Special Ed Programs In Need Of Change
|
|
|
Posted by Sylvia on Friday, April 30, 2004 (00:26:05)
Sant Monica Mirror 14/04/2004
By Hannah Heineman
In January, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Director of Special Education Cindy Atlas reported to the Board of Education that the Special Ed Department’s programs were profoundly flawed.
The report prompted District officials to order that an action plan, similar to the District’s Strategic Plan, be delivered by June 5.
Atlas’ 50-page report on the state of Special Ed programs in the District was completed in May, 2003, was divided into sections on preschool, elementary and secondary education and covered everything from reading to legal issues.
In addition to delineating program flaws and noting that the District was out of compliance in many areas with State and Federal special education laws, Atlas also reported that the District was spending a lot of money on outside contractors for services required by District Special Education students.
Atlas said that the “preschool programs do not have adequate capacity to satisfy all the needs of these children,†particularly those students in the “autism spectrum†and those who need specialized instruction in “behavior intervention.†Among her recommendations were a special day class for autistic students, creation of a clinic setting in which one-on-one training could be given and putting a Certified Behavior Specialist and a Social Worker on staff.
Atlas went on to report that “The District has a limited continuum of program options for special education students†in the elementary schools that has led to “the District being out of compliance†and forced it to pay to send students to nonpublic schools to receive the services they need.
It has also led to lawsuits by parents demanding that the District pay for services their children need that the District doesn’t provide.
Other flaws cited by Atlas in the elementary schools included “a lack of standards for special day classes†and the lack of programs for elementary school students with autism, severe communication handicaps and those “in the mild range of mental retardation.â€
In her report, she suggested that the District “create a primary Communicatively Handicapped class to serve students with severe communication needs and those on the autism spectrum,†as well as a program for students in the mild mental retardation range, and make improvements in both existing day classes and the resource specialist program.
Special Ed programs are no better in the middle and high schools, according to Atlas, and there are no programs for students with autism, no program options for students age 18-22 or chronic absentee students and students returning from court schools.
Other major problems, according to Atlas, include the fact that “special education students cannot earn regular grades,†insufficient staff development, and “lack of appropriate curriculum†for middle and high school students.
To correct the problems, Atlas recommended the creation of a “special day class for students who are chronically absent and those returning from court schools,†initiating a special day class for students with autism, changing the grading policy for special education in high school classes and forming a committee “to consider curriculum at the secondary level.â€
Atlas also found that legal action by parents that usually leads to mediation in which the District and the parents “come to a mutual agreement as to the appropriate services for the student†were on the increase.
In 2003, the District’s failure to provide physical therapy, assistive technology or behavior therapy, programs for students with autism, insufficient services such as speech therapy, a “lack of a small, safe environment such as those found in a nonpublic school setting†and parents’ belief that the District could not “provide an appropriate educational program for their child†were among the bases for mediations.
According to Atlas, nonpublic schools are widely believed to offer “regular education grades at a college prep level, a private education for special education students, a small protective environment, an atmosphere free from teasing, a school’s ability to handle emotional issues, especially depression, and sports teams that the students can participate in at their level.â€
Atlas also reported that “the District did not keep accurate records in regards to mediations settlements and payments agreed to in those settlements,†adding that there was “a high volume of invoices from nonpublic schools and agencies to process.†She concluded that more checks and balances were needed.
In addition, she said that the District’s “Reading Specialist position is not cost effective†because it only reaches a small number of students, and suggested that the District create two District Learning Resource Centers to “address the need for highly specialized instruction in reading for some students†so they would not have to go outside the District for it.
Finally, Atlas examined the District’s transportation program for special education students and found that “the number of days to start the bus transportation varies greatly from student to student,†that some parents were concerned about the length of their children’s bus rides that too few buses could accommodate wheelchairs, and that the District often transported students by taxi when the District transportation department couldn’t accommodate them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
comments? | |
|
|
|
|
Education : PM's wife to battle for Suffolk mum
|
|
|
Posted by Sylvia on Friday, April 23, 2004 (09:03:44)
Evening Star 12/04/2004
By Jassica Nicholls
SUFFOLK mum Linda Sheppard is to take Suffolk County Council to the Court of Human Rights - and Prime Minister's wife Cherie Booth QC will be fighting her corner.
Mrs Sheppard is accusing the Local Education Authority of being in breach of its duty to provide education for her son Zaque, who suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other learning disabilities.
If successful the ruling could set a precedent for other families across the country.
Ms Booth is a leading human rights barrister who specialises in education issues, among a number of other subjects. Last year she publicly criticised her husband's government for being half-hearted about children's rights and failing to live up to its obligations under the UN convention on the rights of the child.
Throughout Zaque's school life Mrs Sheppard, from Kirton, claims she has had a number of battles with the LEA to try and get the right education for her son. Several have been reported in the Evening Star.
At the end of last year, a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities tribunal found in Mrs Sheppard's favour to send Zaque to a residential special school.
Despite recommendations from health and educational experts that Zaque would not be able to function in a mainstream high school even with a special needs support unit, the LEA decided a Suffolk mainstream high school, with a special needs unit was appropriate for the 12-year-old.
But Mrs Sheppard refused to send Zaque there, fearing for the implications to his physical and mental health if he were to attend and he has not been to school since July 2003.
The tribunal ruled that Zaque should have home tutoring until a residential school was chosen but Mrs Sheppard claims the number of hours tutoring has not been honoured by the LEA.
Zaque also needs speech and language therapy which she claims has also not been provided.
Mrs Sheppard said she realised that her fight would be expensive to the tax payer.
She gets legal aid for any action she takes but she said: "If the LEA had provided what was necessary in the first place, I would never have had to go this far."
Zaque does now have a placement for a school in Surrey but the fight has left him without education for nearly a year.
A spokeswoman for Suffolk County Council, said: "We have received a letter regarding the possibility of legal proceedings, which we have responded to.
"We believed that we could have met Mrs Sheppard's son's needs in local provision, but as a result of the SEN tribunal's decision we have been working with Mrs Sheppard to find a different school placement for her son, which he will be starting at the end of this month."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
comments? | |
|
|
|
|
|
Latest: 
New Today: 0
New Yesterday: 0
Overall: 7452
Members: 0
Visitors: 4
Total: 4
1: