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

From the Washington Times:

Twenty-three-year-old Melissa Gurman (left) says she “accomplished her college dream” when she graduated in May from George Mason University’s Learning Into Future Environments (LIFE) program, a postsecondary program for students with intellectual disabilities.

Students in the LIFE program learn independent living skills and take courses for basic literacy, math, and other subjects. The program costs $16,000 per year, not including room and board. The 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act will soon help students with intellectual disabilities offset the costs of postsecondary education with federal loans or scholarships.

Debra Hart of the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts-Boston says some 200 similar programs have sprung up across the nation, most within the past 10 years. She says research suggests that students like Gurman who receive some form of postsecondary education are more likely to find a job and earn higher pay than peers who don’t.

(Washington Times photo)

From People magazine:

(Newstands only; article not available on the magazine’s website.)

Families across the country are searching for loved ones with disabilities who were sent away to institutions years ago, often without warning or explanation.

Kevin Hopkins, 53, of Springfield, Virginia, is seeking his stepsister Janet, who was sent to an institution 42 years ago. “She was my best friend,” he said. “I just wish I could know where she was and see her again.”

Shawna Gagnon, 49, of Montgomery, Alabama said her sister Zena (Xena) was taken to a California hospital 43 years ago “where people hollered and were tied to the beds.”

Filmmaker Jeff Daly, creator of the documentary “Where’s Molly?”, has been working to find family links for the estimated 250,000 Americans who live in group homes or state institutions with no family contacts. He and the nonprofit ArcLink have built a relative search database that has already fostered more than 100 reunions.

(People photo)

From the New York Times:

Experts in medicine and education say that students with ADHD often need additional support as they head for college and move away from the informal support systems that were provided by family and friends during their high school years.

Varying class schedules, hour-long lectures and disrupted sleep routines can pose daunting hurdles for such students. Research suggests that students with ADHD are at greater risk for academic and psychological difficulties, and have lower-grade point averages, than peers without ADHD.

Tips are offered for easing the transition to college. Among them:

• Consider adjusting medications;
• Plan for a place to get refills; and
• Ask about college services.

A Harris Interactive poll has found that most parents of children with disabilities lack a plan to cover a lifetime of care, and those who do plan often make mistakes that could disqualify their child from receiving government services. The research was sponsored by the Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.

In a poll of 580 parents, 62 percent of parents of children with disabilities reported having no plan to cover the cost of caring for the child when they are no longer able to do so.

Even parents with a plan for their child made costly mistakes. Half of all parents of children with special needs plan to leave money directly to their child and even more (58 per cent) name their child as a beneficiary, either of which could possibly disqualify the child for critical government benefits and services. In addition, only a quarter of the parents have established a special needs trust to provide for supplemental needs and expenses of the child, while not disqualifying the individual from receiving government benefits. These missteps likely occurred because only 16 percent of parents with a plan created it with the help of a financial advisor or attorney.

(more…)

From U.S. News & World Report:

As children with autism are growing up and looking to the future, innovative programs are popping up around the country to help them move from high school to adult life.

The aim: give them the chance to go to work, go to college, or even start a business rather than collecting disability benefits and being limited to a sheltered workshop.

Some options include:

• “Supportive and Customized Employment,” in which school systems and state vocational rehabilitation programs work together to help teenagers move into the workforce while still in high school.
• “Employment First” programs which help shift the priorities of social service agencies so that the first step is placing people in a paid job in a regular workplace rather than collecting disability benefits.
• Resource ownership, in which job-training funds and Social Security work incentives are used to buy tools or equipment that a person with a disability will then use on the job.
• Small business ownership.

See also:

How 1 Autistic Young Man Runs a Business — U.S. News and World Report. A young man with autism and Down syndrome runs Poppin’ Joe’s Kettle Korn in Louisburg, Kan., with the help of his parents and five part-time employees.

(U.S. News & World Report photo)

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

A new Illinois law increases the amount of income and assets that workers with disabilities can have before they become ineligible for Medicaid insurance.

The changes are significant because not every job offers health insurance, and people with disabilities are most often not able to get private insurance with adequate coverage. Many people with disabilities across the country are not able to work as they might like for fear of jeopardizing their Medicaid health coverage.

Previously, Illinois’ annual income limit for Medicaid coverage was about $21,000 for individuals, or $44,000 for a family of four. It has been raised to $38,000 for an individual, or $75,000 for a family. The new law also allows workers with disabilities to have up to $25,000 in assets instead of $10,000.

“With these limits, you can go into a position that would move you into the middle class,” said John Coburn, senior policy attorney for a disability advocacy group in Chicago.