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Congressman Burton Receives "Autism Award of Excellence"

Autism Awakening, is a worldwide, non-profit organization dedicated in bringing the issues of autism to the forefront of the world. On April 15th, 2002, the organization announced that it had voted unanimously to award Representative Dan Burton it's annual "Autism Award of Excellence." The award was based on "honor for integrity, direct leadership, and ongoing dedication for individuals with autism." Congressman Burton accepted the award with sincere appreciation.

By Valeria Williams / WFAA-TV

A United States congressman is calling for criminal penalties for any government agency that knew about the dangers of Thimerosal in vaccines, and did nothing to protect American children. WFFA research showed that the FDA began asking questions about the dangers of Thimerosal back in 1972. By 1992, the preservative had been pulled out of dog vaccines and contact lens solutions because of the risks. However, it remained in vaccines for children until last year. Government health officials squirmed uncomfortably in their seats June 20 as more evidence emerged suggesting that they misled the public. "You mean to tell me that since 1929, we've been using Thimerosal," Congressman Dan Burton (R-Indiana) said to the officials, "and the only test that you know of is from 1929, and every one of those people had meningitis, and they all died?"

For nearly an hour, Burton repeatedly asked FDA and CDC officials what they knew and when they knew it. And when memories seemed to be a bit fuzzy, the congressman produced old memos as a refresher. One memo, from 1999, states that the FDA had an "interim plan ... already in place for many years" to get rid of Thimerosal. The same e-mail also addresses the FDA's fear that it will be accused by the public of being "asleep at the switch for decades, by allowing a dangerous compound to remain in childhood vaccines".

Burton has proposed bringing criminal charges if it's proven the government agencies were involved in a cover-up. "Look, I don't think it makes any difference whether it's a private company or a government agency," Burton said. "If they know they're harming somebody and they continue to let it happen, then they should be held accountable." Government accountability is something that parents of autistic children have been asking for for years. Burton asked the question several times June 20, but never got a direct answer. Thus far, within the government, Burton has been a minority voice, but he has subpoena power, and he keeps threatening to use it. "So what you do is keep making the case, and keep trying to get the message out to a broader and broader audience so that people start saying 'Why?'," Burton said. "When enough people say 'Why?', change starts to take place."

http://mercola.com/2002/jul/3/vaccine_mercury.htm

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces the availability of fiscal year (FY) 2002 funds for a cooperative agreement program for Centers of Excellence for Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities Epidemiology. The purpose of the program is to collect and analyze epidemiologic data on the prevalence, correlates, and causes of autism and other developmental disabilities. The new Center(s) will be part of an existing collaborative network investigating autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities. To be eligible, applicants must document a study population of at least 30,000 live births per year within a state, a contiguous area of a state (such as the catchment of a local health agency), or a contiguous area comprised of a combination of states, based on United States Census Data. Approximately $400,000 to $700,000 will be available in FY 2002 to fund approximately one award. The application deadline is August 9, 2002. The grant announcement is available at http://www.cdc.gov/od/pgo/funding/02199.htm.

Music Therapy and Group Work
Sound Company
Edited by Alison Davies and Eleanor Richards
Foreword by Marina Jenkyns
July 2002 304 pages ISBN 1 84310 036 3 pb US$27.95

Group music therapy has been widely practiced for many years and features substantially in training. Music Therapy and Group Work brings together the experiences of group music therapy practitioners who work with diverse client groups in various settings. Whilst acknowledging that the practice of
group music therapy incorporates many theoretical and practical issues in common with those of mainstream group work, the editors emphasize that this
field needs to develop some further theoretical discourse of its own, primarily because its main contrast from regular group work is that it draws
on a non-verbal medium alongside the ordinary verbal exchange

Further details about this book can be found on the JKP website:
http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book.php?isbn=1-84310-036-3
You can also order a copy of the book online from this page.
If you'd like to order a copy of the book, and you are unable to access the Internet, you can contact us directly at:
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 116 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JB, UK
Tel: (+44) 020 7833 2307 Fax: (+44) 020 7837 2917 email: post@jkp.com

President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 19, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments concerning the Commission Report to Thomas Irvin, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education. Due to recent problems with the receipt of surface mail, we encourage you to use either the Internet or Facsimile Transmission (Fax), as follows, to submit your comments, in order to ensure that the comments are received for consideration by the Department: Internet. Comments submitted through the Internet should be sent to the following address: Comments@ed.gov. You must use the term ''Commission Report on Special Education'' in the subject line of your electronic message. Facsimile Transmission (Fax). If you prefer, you may send your comments by Fax to (202) 260-0416.

The Commission's final report was submitted to the President on July 1, 2002, and is currently posted on the following Web site: http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation/.
Public comment on the Commission Report will assist the Department as it formulates its proposals for the reauthorization of the IDEA. Invitation to Comment: We invite your comments on the Commission's findings and recommendations and on the entire Report written by the Commission. In submitting your comments, please identify whether you are involved in special education, regular education or early intervention, as well as your role, if any, in that area (e.g., parent, teacher, service provider, administrator, or researcher). Thank you for your interest in achieving excellence in special education.
 

MAJOR FINDINGS:

1. Currently, process takes precedence over results and bureaucratic compliance over student achievement.
2. The current system uses an antiquated model that waits for a child to fail rather than using a model based on prevention and intervention.
3. Educators and policy-makers think about general education and special education as two separate systems and tally the cost of special education as a separate program, not as additional services with resultant add-on expense.
4. When a child fails to make progress, parents have inadequate options and little recourse.
5. A culture of compliance has developed from the pressures of litigation.
6. Current identification methods lack validity, hence many students are misidentified, not identified, or not identified early enough.
7. Teachers need and want better preparation, support, and professional development.
8. Special education research needs enhanced rigor and long-term coordination.
9. The current system fails many children with disabilities; too few graduate from high school or transition to full employment or post-secondary opportunities, despite the transition service provisions in the current IDEA.

THREE MAJOR RECOMMENDATIONS:

1.  Focus on results-not on process: Raise expectations for student results instead of driving the system with process, litigation, regulation, and confrontation.
2.  Embrace a model of prevention not a model of failure. Move toward early identification and sift intervention with scientifically based instruction and teaching methods.
3.  Consider children with disabilities as general education children first. Share responsibility for students with disabilities. Do not treat special education as a separate cost system. Do not use funding arrangements to create incentives for special education identification or for isolating children with learning and behavior disabilities. Do not relegate students with disabilities to a separately funded program.

ISSUE: NCLB refers to state reading and mathematics assessments; does this recommendation mean that special education students are to be excluded from such assessments, with these other markers to be used as an alternative and separate accountability system?

ISSUE: This appears to be tied to voucher ideas of school choice. How are private schools to be held accountable for outcomes for students with
disabilities?

ISSUE: Many witnesses proposed making mediation mandatory prior to a due process hearing request. This recommendation does not go that far.

ISSUE: This recommendation does not propose full funding. In Senator Kennedy's introduction to the executive summary of the Commission report, he registers concern that "the Commission did not take a stand on the commitment made by the Federal government thirty years ago to fully fund special education," resulting in many students, teachers, parents, and schools continuing to be "cheated out of the resources they were promised."

Federal Regulations and Monitoring, Paperwork Reduction and Increased
Flexibility
1. Replace federal monitoring practices with a focused approach. The US DOE should radically alter how it conducts technical assistance and monitoring to focus on results instead of process.
2. Reduce regulatory burden and increase flexibility. IDEA should provide a unified system of services from birth through 21, and the IEP should be simplified to focus on substantive outcomes. Federal regulatory requirements are burdensome and should be simplified. Up to 10 states shall be allowed to propose paperwork reduction strategies under IDEA to the Secretary of Education.
3. Utilize federal special education staff more effectively. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) has not met its obligations or appropriately implemented its responsibilities. Within 3 months of this report, the Secretary of Education should provide Congress with recommendations for how OSERS can better utilize its staff and resources to implement federal special education law.
4. Expedited results from expedited implementation. The new IDEA authorization should be implemented within 12 months, consistent with NCLB.
Assessment and Identification:
1. Identify and intervene early. Implement research-based early identification and intervention programs to identify academic and behavioral problems in young children.
2. Simplify the identification process. Make eligibility determination simpler and clarify the criteria used to determine the existence of a disability, particularly high-incidence
disorder.

ISSUE: Is this an attempt to look at the increases in students identified with specific learning disabilities?

Special Education Research and Dissemination of Information
1. Change the current grant review process to create scientific rigor. Improve the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) so that more researchers participate in review processes. Create a culture of scientific rigor in OSEP.
2. Improve the coordination of special education research. Integrate the activities within the U.S. Department of Education's OSERS: the Rehabilitation Services  Administration, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and OSEP.
3. Support long-term research priorities.
Focus research on a narrower range of priorities to promote more reliable discoveries.
4. Improve the impact of research findings.
Focus on proven, effective practices that can be implemented, scaled, and sustained nationwide.

Post-Secondary Results for Students with Disabilities and Effective Transition Services
1. Simplify federal transition requirements in the IDEA. Provide clear steps for integrating school and non-school transition services.
2. Mandate federal interagency coordination of resources. Provide an Executive Order mandating existing agency coordination and pooling of existing funds.
3. Create a Rehabilitation Act Reauthorization Advisory Committee.
4. Support higher education faculty, administrators, and auxiliary service
providers to more effectively provide and help students with disabilities to complete a high quality post-secondary education. Support and hold post-secondary institutions accountable for using
evidence-based, best practice programs and practices.

Teacher and Administrator Preparation, Training and Retention
1. Recruit and train highly qualified general and special education teachers. State licensures and endorsements should require specific training related to meeting the needs of students with disabilities and integrating parents into special education services.
2. Create research and data-driven systems for training teachers of special education.
3. Institute ongoing field experiences.
Require teacher trainees to complete supervised practicum experiences in each year of their training, covering the full range of general education, special education, and inclusive settings and service delivery models.
4. Require rigorous training in reading.
Include phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
5. Require public reporting. Report the performance of general education and special education program graduates relative to educating students with disabilities.
6. Increase special education and related services faculty. Address the shortage of special education and related services doctorate holders who are qualified to train teachers.
7. Conduct research. Identify the critical factors in personnel preparation for improving the learning and achievement of students with disabilities.
The entire report will be posted on the Commission's website at:
http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation

Amy Fagan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published 7/9/2002

President Bush's commission charged with finding ways to improve special education releases its report today recommending, among other things, increased accountability for the federal special-education program and fewer paperwork requirements.

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, has some questions for the commission.

Mr. Kennedy convenes a hearing today before his Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee to examine the commission's findings and to question what he says is the commission's silence on mandatory funding increases for special education. He will also question the commission's call for the use of vouchers for parents of disabled children.

" I'm concerned that the commission did not take a stand on the commitment made by the federal government thirty years ago to fully fund special education," Mr. Kennedy said of the report, which was sent to Capitol Hill staff last week. "As a result of the failure to live up to that commitment, parents, teachers, students and schools across the nation continue to be cheated out of the resources they were promised."

The commission, created in October of last year and chaired by former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, examined the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is up for congressional reauthorization this year. It found -- as many critics in Congress have -- that the IDEA program forces too many students into special education classes who do not belong there and waits too long to identify the students who truly need special help.

In its report, the commission recommends enhancing IDEA accountability to focus more on results while at the same time reducing the IDEA paperwork burden. It also recommends implementing research-based early identification and intervention programs to reduce over-identification and misidentification of youth, including minorities; reforming how special education is financed; supporting special-education teachers and encouraging innovative approaches and parental involvement.

Mr. Kennedy and other Senate Democrats continue to push for immediate guaranteed funding increases for IDEA to fulfill the promise Congress made to states in 1975 to cover 40 percent of the cost of educating disabled students. Although there have been notable increases in special education in recent years, the government has fallen short of meeting that goal. Critics of IDEA, led by House Republicans, say funding must be linked to reform or else reform will not happen.

Mr. Kennedy's spokesman, Jim Manley, also said the report calls for the use of vouchers to allow parents to send disabled children to private or public schools of their choice.

" There is no guarantee that vouchers would be available to all disabled students, nor is there a guarantee that their civil rights would be protected," Mr. Kennedy said yesterday.

Dave Schnittger, spokesman for the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the report contains "a small section that encourages states and the federal government to ensure that parents of children with special needs have as many choices as possible" in educating their children.

The state of Florida has a voucher system for disabled students that has been popular with many parents.
"At a minimum we need to be sure federal law does not needlessly discourage states from following Florida's example," Mr. Schnittger said

GROUP HOME DIRECTOR
6 Autistic children ages 6-12 seeking Group Home Director. Must have
LCSW + 3 years exp. social work admin. or LCPC + 5 years exp. social work
admin. Salary commensurate w/exp. Send resume to: CCA, PO Box 126,
Cary, IL 60013

Dear Autism News,

My seven-year-old son John currently sees a psychiatrist for medication about every 3 months. Although I write detailed letters/notes in advance of my visits, this doctor is extremely evasive and vague in answering my concerns. I do not feel I am getting any answers from him. Indeed, on my last visit, he told me he was 'baffled' about John's progress. To me, this was the last straw. As you can see, it is time to move on.

I am looking for a doctor who specializes in Autism/PDD in the St. Charles, Geneva, or Batavia area (or thereabouts), who can not only prescribe medication but can also answer my questions regarding behavior, school/home issues, etc. Our insurance is lousy so I do not want to have to pay a psychiatrist, psychologist, or behavioral specialist.

Sincerely,

Mom in St. Charles

• An internet book review--it is a real page-turner right now.
• Do you have a recipe for GF/CF food? Send it in and it will get published.
• Meeting/conference info along with the latest info I get having to do with IDEA.
• Would anyone like to start a FETA study group? Let me know.

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