This article was published on the Council for Exceptional Children on January 8, 2021. On December 29, President-Elect Joe Biden delivered pandemic-related remarks that included a call to action for most K-8 schools to reopen by the end of his first 100 days in office. Biden called on Congress to provide additional funding for states […]
This article was published on the Estes Park Trail Gazette by Jason Van Tatenhove on January 4, 2021. The grandparent of an Estes Park student who has been identified as a child with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA,) has filed a state-level complaint against Larimer County School District R-3 on […]
This article was published on the San Antonio Report by Brooke Crum on January 4, 2021. Deep in the labyrinthine basement of the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, El-Fayad-Ben Ibrahim worked one Thursday afternoon assembling sheets of paper into packets, one of only eight interns allowed in the hospital amid the pandemic. The Sam Houston […]
This article was published on Maine Public by Robbie Feinberg on January 4, 2021. For students with disabilities, it’s important that needed services be provided as early as possible. But schools and state officials acknowledge that low wages and teacher shortages have left many families waiting for those services, with the pandemic only making the problem […]
This article was published on Florida Politics by Ryan Nicol on January 4, 2021. Rep. Bobby DuBose, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, is refiling legislation looking to reduce certain restrictive punishments for students with disabilities. DuBose’s bill (HB 149) will serve as the companion measure to Senate legislation filed late last month by Sen. Lauren Book. The measures […]
This article was published on Chicago Sun Times by Fran Spielman on December 14, 2020. Chicago taxpayers will spend $300,000 to compensate a former 16-year-old special needs student Tased and wrestled down a flight of stairs by police officers at Marshall High School after refusing to put away her cellphone during a test. On Monday, the City […]
This article was published on Chalkbest Detroit by Koby Levin on December 22, 2020. Michigan has spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars aimed at improving early literacy, yet roughly one in three Michigan fourth-graders don’t have basic reading skills, a figure that has hardly budged in two decades. Sen. Jim Runestad says he can help […]
This article was published on WTTW by Matt Masterson on December 18, 2020. This story was produced by the Teacher Project, an education reporting fellowship at Columbia Journalism School. NUTLEY, N.J. – Ever since Carlos Tejada was diagnosed with autism at 13 months old, his parents have struggled to find him the right services. It was […]
This article was published on WTTW by Matt Masterson on December 18, 2020. By the time Arlene Comendador joined Frazier International Magnet School on Chicago’s West Side last winter, she already knew she wanted more for herself in her career. Comendador began work as a substitute teaching English language arts at the elementary school, but […]
This article was published on WLRN by Lynn Hatter on December 16, 2020. Each year, about 36,000 children in Florida are involuntarily committed for psychiatric evaluations under the state’s Baker Act and disabled kids are becoming increasingly ensnared. The Baker Act was not designed for kids, yet the number of children who are involuntarily committed […]