From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

A New Jersey plan to open a state Office of Autism Services has drawn mixed reactions from disability advocates. While parents express enthusiasm, experts in the disability community say the state is creating a two-tiered system that favors one diagnosis at the expense of people with other disabilities.

The governor’s Adults with Autism Task Force recommended that the state also make improvements in housing, job training, education, transportation and financial security for people with autism after age 21. Experts said such improvements are needed for all adults with disabilities, not just people with autism.

It is estimated that some 8,500 people languish on waiting lists for disability-related services in New Jersey.

Nationally, “autism is the disability that’s getting the focus right now in a lot of sectors,” said Barbara Trader, executive director of TASH, a Washington nonprofit that lobbies for equity and inclusion for people with disabilities. “But the entire disability community needs a lot more services.”

From the New York Times:

An increasing number of American babies are being conceived with the help of the fertility industry — at a cost. Experts say these children are disproportionately likely to be twins, and are at a heightened risk for disabilities including mental impairments, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, and eye and ear impairments. An estimated 30 percent of twins end up in the neonatal intensive care unit, according to one government study.

Fertility industry leaders and government health officials have called on doctors to avoid the risk of twins, but doctors say strong financial incentives encourage them to implant multiple embryos. Further, they say, couples do not fully understand the risks.

A recent study by the March of Dimes said fertility treatments are one of the main reasons the nation has seen a 36 percent increase in prematurity in the last 25 years. The nation’s overall prematurity rate is 12.7 percent, which is regarded as a major national health care problem. The government estimates that the care of premature infants costs $26 billion a year.

(New York Times photo of Carter Hare at just over 24 weeks. He weighed one pound, 12 ounces.)

In Business Week’s Working Parents blog, Anne Newman poses this provocative question in a discussion of Including Samuel, which is being aired nationally on PBS. The award-winning documentary by Dan Habib chronicles his family’s efforts to include son Samuel (left), who has cerebral palsy, in all aspects of daily life, including education.

Newman says her earlier blog post on the film drew support from many who saw inclusion as the next civil rights movement, but a vocal minority questioned whether scarce resources should be spent on it. Wrote one: ‘Why do we even bother paying for education for these kids?”

She passed the questions on to Habib, who responded with a list of myths and realities about inclusion. “People are not limited by their disability,” he replied. “They are limited by a lack of opportunity.”

Newman asks: “What about it, readers? … Do students with disabilities in your schools learn along with their peers? Are your schools strained or strengthened by including them?”

See also:

Film teaches inclusion of students with disabilities — [Madison] Wisconsin State Journal

An excerpt:

… the film’s sponsors are leading efforts to have young people around the world hold viewing parties and take action for inclusion.

“We will get there when families without disabilities are advocating for this,” Habib said of inclusion.

From the Associated Press:

Of the first 36 U.S. children to die of the swine flu since it was identified in April, almost two-thirds had epilepsy, cerebral palsy or other neurodevelopmental conditions, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a previous flu season, only a third of the children who died of the flu had comparable underlying conditions.

See also:

Ed. Dept. Gives Guidance on Providing Special Education During a Swine Flu Outbreak – Education Week blog

Funding shortfall, lack of coordination blamed

From the [Toronto] Star:

The government ombudsman in Ontario, Canada, has found that some two dozen families are living in fear that they will be forced to surrender custody of their children in order to obtain care for them.

The parents say they have been told that there is no money left in the government fund designed to support home care for the children, who have severe disabilities, but they can get services if they surrender their parental rights to the Children’s Aid Society.

“No one should be forced to give up their child,” said one parent. “This is horrible.”

The report by ombudsman André Marin calls for reform to protect parental custody rights and secure funding to care for the children at home.

UPDATE: Where’s Ontario’s humanity, mom asks — [Toronto] Star

From the Boston Globe:

A principal who pioneered inclusive education at a Boston elementary school two decades ago will be celebrated this afternoon as he retires and the school is renamed in his honor.

At a surprise ceremony, the Patrick O’Hearn Elementary School will be renamed the William Henderson Elementary school as a tribute to a principal who has improved the lives of thousands of children, according to parents.

Principal William Henderson, 59, who is blind, began teaching students with disabilities alongside their typical peers at O’Hearn in 1989, and the school earned a national reputation as a model for inclusive education, particularly among urban schools. Currently, one-third of the students at the school receive special education services.

“Boston has far too many kids in segregated classrooms and not enough schools like the O’Hearn,” said Thomas Hehir, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and a former director of the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs. “The O’Hearn is one of the few schools in urban America that demonstrates all students can succeed.”

Henderson also shattered stereotypes about what people with disabilities can achieve professionally as his career continued to blossom even as he progressively lost his vision.

(Boston Globe photo)

See also: A matter of principal — Story and photos from Boston Globe Magazine

From the [Portland] Oregonian:

A 47-year-old woman has been sentenced to a year in jail for stealing $5,000 from the bank accounts of the adults with disabilities she had been hired to assist.

Margie Cleo Tisdale was employed by the nonprofit United Cerebral Palsy of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Prosecutors said she stole money from five victims, many of whom had little money to spare in the first place, and spent it on manicures, lattes and her rent.

One witness said Tisdale controlled her bank account and refused to give her money for food shopping, insisting that she eat remaining food in her kitchen that had expired or gone bad.

Tisdale pleaded guilty to 11 counts of criminal mistreatment and identity theft.

(Photo from the [Portland] Oregonian)