By Christina Samuels in Education Week (registration required):

The federal stimulus package for education has revived some endangered early intervention programs for infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities, but advocates say the future is still uncertain.

Research has demonstrated that early intervention programs help children with disabilities, but budget concerns are making states consider shrinking and even eliminating them. The programs are not mandated by federal law.

Susan Maude, the president of the Division for Early Childhood of the Arlington, Va.-based Council for Exceptional Children, says the stimulus funds “have allowed some states to postpone, for at least a year, the difficult decision about whether the state can afford to continue to participate in this voluntary program.”

State says it can’t pay for the therapy hundreds of children need

From the Las Vegas Sun:

About 450 children with disabilities under age 3, like Owynn Spahr (with family, left), have been waiting as long as a year for federally mandated early intervention services in Nevada. Children with conditions including Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, blindness and hearing impairment continue to wait.

… officials say budget shortages are forcing them to withhold care for the young children. In fact, they say they’re hesitant to inform parents of disabled children of their legal rights — including that the caretakers could be reimbursed by the state if they get the therapy elsewhere — because of the cost to the state of providing the service.

… Karen Taycher, executive director of the advocacy group Nevada Parents Empowering Parents, said the failures of the state’s early medical intervention program have created a crisis of profound proportions for families that qualify for help but are not getting it from the state. Waiting lists are not allowed under federal law, she said.

(Photo from Las Vegas Sun)

In the wake of John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin, Jim Dwyer of the New York Times visits with some people who have firsthand experience with Down syndrome. Palin’s infant son Trig has Down syndrome, and was diagnosed prenatally.

Among the people Dwyer meets is fourth grader Catherine Emer Madden, who would have been “essentially written off educationally” not too long ago. Early education gave her the boost she needed to progress in school.

Catherine’s mother, Deirdre Featherstone, said that …

… no matter how the race ended, Governor Palin was on an extraordinary journey.

“If she’s afraid, there’s about a million of us who would cheer her on — it’s the best thing that is ever going to happen to you,” Ms. Featherstone said. “And I don’t mean the vice presidency.”

See also:

Sarah Palin’s baby puts Down syndrome in spotlight — Los Angeles Times:

As prenatal genetic testing has become more widespread, disabilities rights activists have grown concerned that children like 4-month-old Trig Palin will become an increasing rarity. Trig is the son of presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and he has Down syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality that affects about one in 800 babies born alive in the United States each year. A 1999 study found that 90% of women  who learn their baby has the genetic abnormality chose to end the pregnancy.

But parents of children with Down syndrome have grown increasingly vocal about their choice to give birth to their babies, and to share the challenges and rewards of raising a child with a disability … With one in every 33 children born in the United States having some birth defect causing lifelong disability, a community also has sprung up to share information on the wide range of federally mandated educational programs and social services available to families.

Respect is a two-way street, by Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post:

… I had my children at ages 37 and 39, old enough that the risk of Down syndrome was elevated, as it was for Palin, and my doctor recommended amniocentesis. Had the results indicated any abnormality, I have little doubt that I would have made a different decision than did Palin. I have no doubt that such an agonizing choice should have been up to my husband and me, not to the government.

… I respect the Palins’ choices. I only wish they would show as much respect for others to exercise their own, free of government imposing it on them.

(Photo from Los Angeles Times)

From the Long Beach [CA] Press-Telegram:

Columnist Tom Hennessy profiles Jim and Miriam Kang, who received a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Abortion was not an option for them, and they felt profoundly depressed and worried. Would neighbors and friends reject their child? Would anyone ever invite him to a birthday party?

Now, the Kangs say happily that their son Nicholas has been welcomed by their community, and that his progress is challenging many preconceptions about people with Down syndrome. Now almost four, Nicholas can count to 20, spell his first and last name, knows his shapes and colors, and can read over 30 words.

Nicholas is deluged with birthday-party invitations. He attends Emerson Parkside Academy and has been befriended by children who do not have Down syndrome.

“This past year,” says Miriam, “one of his ‘typical’ friends from school invited him to her birthday party. I cried tears of joy because he was invited to a party from school. My biggest fear was now no longer.” (more…)

From the Detroit Free Press: A feature about a Joe and Susan Kotlinski, a Michigan couple who developed a reading system for children with disabilities after the birth of their daughter. Maria Kotlinski, now 23, has Down syndrome. She reads, volunteers at a hospital and child care center, takes jazz dance classes and plays the piano.

They expect their love to transcend limitations.

From the Nashville Tennesseean:

Bernadette Resha, 28, is a high school graduate, an acomplished artist and a paid spokeswoman for Easter Seals and Special Olympics.

On Nov. 11, she will do something else that experts a generation ago would not have thought possible: she is getting married to a man who also has Down syndrome.*

Advocates say marriage is rare between two people with Down syndrome but becoming more common because of longer life spans made possible by medical advancements. Newer laws ensure their right to education and employment, which have made independence possible. (more…)