Chickens and Fair Housing

Many posts have discussed therapy animals, and one recent case involved a boy and his chickens. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports:

A Longwood attorney says he has reached an agreement with DeBary officials to allow a 3-year-old autistic boy to keep his backyard chickens.

Mark Nation said Wednesday the city agreed to grant a special accommodation for J.J. Hart, whose family’s permit to keep three chickens is set to expire Dec. 31.

The DeBary City Council has scheduled a special meeting at 6 p.m. Dec. 18 to consider “granting a reasonable accommodation under the federal and Florida Fair Housing Acts.”

The council voted 3-2 last week to kill the program that allowed backyard chickens with permits. Since then, J.J.’s story has attracted worldwide attention, from NBC’s “Today” show to Fox News and the Daily Mail of London.

“I approached the city and informed them laws would be violated in the event of the removal of his chickens,” Nation said.

By email, he shared a statement laying out his legal case. Under the law, he said J.J., who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, would qualify as a disabled person whose right to accommodation cannot be violated by city codes.

“The Federal Fair Housing Act ... prohibits the City of DeBary from ... a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford such person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling,” the analysis reads.

House Passes Research Bill

Leesburg Today reports:

A bill honoring 10-year-old Leesburg resident Gabriella Miller to provide $126 million for pediatric research grants passed in the U.S. House of Representatives today.

“Less talking, more doing. We need action,” the vibrant little girl told a crowd during an event in October, and some of the most powerful men and women in Congress repeated that quote on the House floor Wednesday.

Gabriella was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in November 2012, and in the 11 months that followed she became an outspoken advocate for more awareness and funding for pediatric diseases. She lost her battle with the disease Oct. 26.

The Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act would require the director of the National Institutes of Health to allocate $126 million—$12.6 million each year for 10 years—of appropriated funds for pediatric research. The money would be re-designated from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund for national party conventions to made into research grants for pediatric autism, cancer and other diseases.

The bill, with more than 150 co-sponsors, passed on a 295-103 vote.

The Hill reports:

Most Democrats — 102 of them — rejected the bill as a weak attempt to restore a small amount of the spending cuts the GOP has already foisted upon the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"It is a disingenuous and empty attempt by the Republicans to divert attention from the fact that they have voted to cut research time and time again," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.).

The bill would take $126 million in money that is now meant to fund presidential nominating conventions. It would spread that money out over 10 years.

But Democrats who voted against it argued that Republicans are responsible for $1.5 billion in cuts to the NIH, and that the bill does not represent a real attempt to restore funding.

"That's why I think the Republicans are not making a sincere effort to support NIH research," Pallone said. "This is a joke." 

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has been pushing hard for the bill:

DC and Private Schools

At The Huffington Post, Joy Resmovits reports on Greg Masucci and Maya Wechsler, who are trying to get their son Max a decent education from the District of Columbia.

After cycling Max through four public schools in his short life, Greg and Maya have come to the conclusion that the District of Columbia Public Schools system doesn't have the capacity to educate their son. Federal law states that public school systems must foot the bill for private schooling for students like Max if the public schools can't give him a "free and appropriate public education."

How you define "appropriate," though, is where it gets blurry.

Last November, Max's family filed for private school funding. In January, a DCPS hearing officer denied their claim on the grounds that Max's lack of progress is not legal reason enough to grant him free tuition.

Washington, D.C., like other school districts throughout the country, is currently trying to reduce the number of special education students on the rolls of costly private schools. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has called for reducing his city's private placements by half. A document obtained by The Huffington Post shows that the district is offering incentives to public and charter school administrators who keep special education students under their roofs. But in a positive sign for special education students in D.C., the most recent results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that students with disabilities increased their scores by nine points in fourth grade reading and eighth grade reading and math, and by three points in fourth grade reading.

The district declined to discuss Max's case, citing privacy and pending litigation. It asserts the switch from private to public schools assuages a civil rights concern, because students with disabilities can stay in regular public schools where they can be included and not segregated. "Federal law requires that local education agencies evaluate every child at least once a year to determine whether or not they are in the least restrictive environment possible," Dr. Nathaniel Beers, a pediatrician who oversees special education for DCPS, told HuffPost. "Is there a kid in a self-contained classroom who doesn't need to be? Is this a kid who is in a more restrictive setting, like one of our self-contained school buildings?"

But many special needs advocates suspect it's an attempt to save money. For years, a court injunction compelled D.C. to place more special education students with even low or moderate disabilities in private placement. Consequently, private school tuition ate significantly into the city's school budget.

Media, Mice, and Autism

UPI reports:

Changes in bacteria in the gut can influence autism-like behaviors in a mouse model, say researchers at California Institute Technology.

Sarkis K. Mazmanian, a professor of biology, said to study this gut--microbiota--brain interaction, the researchers used a mouse model of autism previously developed at Caltech in the laboratory of Paul H. Patterson, the Anne P. and Benjamin F. Biaggini Professor of Biological Sciences.

"Traditional research has studied autism as a genetic disorder and a disorder of the brain, but our work shows that gut bacteria may contribute to ASD-like symptoms in ways that were previously unappreciated," Mazmanian said in a statement. "Gut physiology appears to have effects on what are currently presumed to be brain functions."

The research has been getting a great deal of media attention.  As is usually the case with autism research "breakthroughs," much of the coverage overlooks important caveats.

Jessica Wright reports at The Simons Foundation:

“This is a real limitation in the conclusions from this study, as, in many ways, social interaction deficits are at the core of the phenotype of autism,” says Ted Abel, professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the research. He suggests that other mechanisms may underlie the social behavior in these mice.

The researchers emphasize that the results are in mice and that they may model only one type of autism. “We need to be very cautious here. We are looking at an initial report in one mouse model,” says Mazmanian. “At best, they represent a subset of the autism population.”

Researchers also shouldn’t underestimate the challenges of trying to change the microbiome in people, says [Yale Professor David] Littman. Finding a gut molecule that is elevated in people with autism and pinning down bacteria that reverse its production would be “a tremendous advance,” he says. “It’s very difficult to target the microbiome without knowing what’s going on.”

The researchers do, however, have promising preliminary results with mice that carry mutations seen in people with autism. They are now treating mice with commercially available probiotics and are planning a clinical trial with B. fragilis in people with autism. These are only the early first steps, notes Patterson. “I don’t want people rushing out trying to buy B. fragilis,” he says.

Chickens

Many posts have discussed therapy animals (which are not quite the same thing as service animals). WOFL in Orlando reports:

An autistic DeBary boy will have to give up his pet chickens, despite his parents' best efforts, after the city council denied the family an extension.

Some council members said there wasn't enough community support to go ahead with allowing chicken permits, but the family says this fight isn't over.

Three-year-old J.J. Hart made national news a year ago when his family said chickens help with his autism.

"A lot of people with autism have self-harming tendencies," says father Joe Hunt. "J.J. used to pull his hair out and throw his head back to the ground. The chickens taught him to be calm."
A doctor recommended the chickens as a way to help with therapy, but a city ordinance banned residents from owning chickens. With huge support form the community and even state lawmakers, the family convinced the council last December to experiment with a 1-year chicken pilot program.

Seven families filed for permits. Now that the year is almost up, the council voted 3 to 2 to cancel the program and prohibit chickens in the city.

FOX 35 News Orlando

Autism and the Environment: New Study

Deepa Fernandes writes at KPCC about a new study showing that children with a certain gene mutation associated with autism are more likely to develop it when exposed to high pollution.

Previous studies by USC researchers Heather Volk and Daniel Campbell found links between autism and air pollution exposure for pregnant women and infants. This one looked specifically at the MET gene - which researchers have already linked to autism - and how it's affected when exposed to high amounts of air pollution, finding an augmented risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder in children.

“Although gene-environment interactions are widely believed to contribute to autism risk, this is the first demonstration of a specific interaction between a well-established genetic risk factor and an environmental factor that independently contribute to autism risk,” said Daniel B. Campbell, Ph.D., the study’s senior author.

...
Children who had the altered MET gene and lived in high pollution areas, had triple the risk for autism than children who had neither of the risk factors.

The research paper, “Autism spectrum disorder: Interaction of air pollution with the MET receptor tyrosine kinase gene,” will be published in the journal Epidemiology in January.

KanCare

Kaiser Health News reports on a change that it coming to Kansas in January.

That’s when Kansas’ Medicaid managed care system — called KanCare — will take charge of all home and community-based services for about 8,500 people with developmental disabilities, most of them adults. What concerns families and advocates the most is that the three for-profit national insurance companies that run KanCare will be responsible for a statewide program that they’ve never managed in Kansas or elsewhere. They’re also worried that the need to make a profit ultimately will destroy a system families and advocates think works well.

While Kansas will become the first state to make such a leap, it is being watched closely elsewhere, as at least two other states — Louisiana and New Hampshire — are considering moving in the same direction.

...

By next year, more than two dozen states are expected to have set up programs to transfer frail elderly, mentally ill or individuals with physically disabilities into managed care for home and community-based services. But in most states, those with developmental disabilities — people with impairments such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism — have been excluded from managed care for these services because their needs are so specialized.

...
“There is a great deal of fear in the community that these big private health plans don’t know much about this population,” said Maureen Fitzgerald, disability rights director for The Arc, a national advocacy organization for those with developmentally disabilities. “These are such vulnerable people. Mistakes that are just inconvenient to some can be devastating to them. If the home care person doesn’t show up, you could be lying in your bed all day. It’s kind of scary.”

Only a handful of states, including Michigan and Vermont, have moved individuals with developmental disabilities into managed care for long-term services. They’ve mostly relied on existing networks of community-based nonprofits or county agencies or have made themselves the managed care organization. None has turned exclusively to national managed care companies.

The Kansas City Star reports on a federal panel asking why Kansans with developmental disabilities no longer get services for which they previously qualified.

Members of the National Council on Disability pointedly put that question to Shawn Sullivan, director of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, and Susan Mosier, state Medicaid director. The council, appointed by the president to advise his administration and Congress on national disability policy, has held two days of hearings in Topeka this week.

It spent almost all of Thursday focused on KanCare, the state’s new managed-care program for the poor and disabled.

Working through three private-sector insurance companies, KanCare has been managing medical care since Jan. 1. Next month, it’s scheduled to take over management of daily living services for the developmentally disabled.

Disability council member Gary Blumenthal, a former Kansas legislator and social services official, continuously pressed to know how the previous government-run Medicaid system could decide that a disabled person needed 24/7 attendant care, while KanCare thinks the same person can get by with about 40 attendant hours a week.

Blumenthal also questioned whether the managed-care system is using a lower set of standards to make such quality-of-care decisions. Sullivan replied that the standards are the same.

“The difference is pre-KanCare, those weren’t always followed and post-KanCare, they are,” Sullivan said.