From the St. Petersburg Times,  Tampa Tribune:

Three civil rights groups have filed a class action complaint with the Florida Department of Education alleging that students with disabilities in the Hillsborough schools were neglected and disciplined instead of being given counseling and support services required by federal law.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities and the NAACP joined forces to file the complaint over the Hillsborough school district’s treatment of students with emotional and behavioral disabilities.

The complaint asks the state to force Hillsborough to transform a “culture of neglect and overly harsh discipline” that puts students with disabilities on a path to jail and prison.

… Punishing students with disabilities instead of providing them with services that promote positive behavior “appears to occur more frequently with students of color,” according to the complaint.

Similar complaints have been filed against Palm Beach County, as well as in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“This problem is not limited to Palm Beach and Hillsborough,” said Brandi Davis, a lawyer from the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. “This is a state and national problem.

From the [Toronto] Globe & Mail:

Parents of kids with learning disabilities are turning to independent schools like Toronto’s Arrowsmith School, which has affiliates across Canada and the U.S. The school uses targeted exercises to stimulate specific parts of the brain, with students working on specific skills for at least half of their school day.

The cost per student is about $19,000 a year for full-time studies at the Toronto campus, which serves about 60 pupils. Students usually attend the school for three years and then return to regular classrooms.

Woman with Down syndrome inspires families in Washington state – KNDO/KNDU-TV, Yakima, Washington — Karen Gaffney (left) speaks out about her experiences earning a regular high school diploma and a degree from Portland Community College, swimming across Lake Tahoe, and participating in a relay team that swam the English Channel. Says Gaffney:

“I’ve changed all that data.  I’ve changed their doubts. I have improved and inspired so many lives, spread my messages of being fully included in a regular classroom setting.”

Link to video here; earlier video of Karen Gaffney on the NBC Today show here.

People with Down syndrome live fully — letter to the Sacramento Bee from Elaine Linn. An excerpt:

People with Down syndrome go to school, work, have meaningful relationships, make decisions about their lives and live independently. They become dedicated employees and loyal friends.

… There’s something terribly wrong with a society that purportedly values diversity yet places a distinct lack of value on people who aren’t “perfect.” I don’t know one perfect person and it’s hard to understand this willing acceptance of terminating pregnancies based on inaccurate information about potential “imperfections.” Yet it exists 90 percent of the time with Down syndrome.

Avoid Tropic Thunder, a cruel comedy — by Eric Johnson in the Grand Forks, ND, Herald

The fact is that even among the various species of hate speech, ridicule of those with retardation is unique in its brutishness. Unlike racial minorities, religious adherents or the physically disabled, those with developmental disabilities cannot well defend themselves with wit and well-crafted retorts. That’s why the arguments of Downey and Black — that everyone has the right to say whatever they want — are especially hollow.

New system for developmentally disabled is needed — Sheila Romano in the Springfield, IL, Journal Register (institutionalization, housing)

Taking the fear out of difference — Baltimore Sun (education, attitudes)

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From the CBS Early Show:

Garrett Schram of Boise, Idaho, (left) is the first student in the country to attend school from a hospital room by using a new business video conferencing device. (See video here.)

Called Roundtable, the device with tiny cameras pointed in every direction makes it possible for Garrett to participate in classes at Sawtooth Middle School even though he’s being treated for bone cancer at St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

The Microsoft technology provides a real-time audio-video connection between the hospital and his classroom, allowing Garrett to keep up with lessons and stay connected with his community, teachers and peers.

Microsoft says it is donating thirty of the devices to hospitals this year.

(CBS graphic)

Guest commentary:

What Kind of Advocacy Do Americans with Disabilities Really Need?

By Paul K. Longmore

Ever since Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech, the “needs” of children with disabilities have gotten a lot of press. Palin pledged to be a “friend and advocate” for those children. News stories have reported the excitement of parents and other people in the disability rights constituency that disability issues are finally getting some attention. Some of them have decided to support the election of Palin and John McCain. But do the Republican candidates offer the kind of advocacy Americans with disabilities really need? I don’t believe they do, and I want to explain why I am voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden instead.

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Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton is worried about the students in special education who failed their exit exams — almost half of them, by the state’s count. He wonders whether California is harassing them by insisting that they pass. An excerpt:

We need common sense here. One size doesn’t fit all. Education is more than abstract academia. It’s also about building social skills and self-confidence — about reaching as high as possible, and not being punished for not fulfilling some bureaucrats’ or politicians’ expectations.

We should call a time out and reexamine the exam for these special kids.

See earlier post here.

From the Boston Globe:

In the window of a store in Plymouth, Massachusetts, is a t-shirt with a slogan that’s popular among hockey moms: “Trample the weak; hurdle the dead.” Writer Marianne Leone sees it and remembers her son, who died in 2005. He was nonverbal and quadriplegic; he wrote poetry on his computer. From her op-ed:

How will Sarah Palin, self-described hockey mom, reconcile this brutal ethos with her promise to “be an advocate for parents of children with special needs,” now that she’s a member of that club, too?

… In the warrior culture espoused by self-described “pit bull” Palin, there is no place for the weak. When I saw the T-shirt in the window of [the store], I thought of my son and how hard we had to fight to get him basic healthcare and to enroll him in public school.

Even though the laws are in place for inclusion of students with disabilities, many parents face an uphill battle to implement these laws. Palin supports vouchers, so that parents can “choose” schools for their children.

… In Palin’s perfect school universe, segregation would be the norm for kids with disabilities.

… She and McCain are more likely to continue the brutal and failed Bush policies of trampling the weak and hurdling the dead.