Blue Envelopes in Maine

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between first responders and autistic people.  Some jurisdictions allow autistic drivers to ask for a blue envelope to disclose the driver's diagnosis in case of an accident or traffic stop.

WGME in Portland, Maine:

Police in Cape Elizabeth are working to improve interactions between officers and drivers who may have autism, anxiety or other ailments.

The "blue envelope program" was started in 2020 in Connecticut and has since spread to other states.

Cape Elizabeth was the first community in Maine to launch the program last year.

Police say if they pull over a driver who exhibits nonverbal behaviors, the driver can present their information in a blue envelope containing photocopies of their driver's license, registration and insurance.

“My experiences is they are nonverbal, they are very anxious, they’re jittery,” Cape Elizabeth Police Sgt. Kevin Kennedy said. “And we just did not want to confuse that with someone that was under the influence or maybe not being cooperative. It’s just their diagnosis.”

Drivers with a blue envelope still need to follow officers’ directions in the event of a traffic stop or accident, but this program aims to make those interactions a little bit easier.

Autism and Accommodation in College

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the growing number of college students on the autism spectrum. 

Laura Spitalniak at Higher Ed Dive: interview Sarah Howorth, professor of special education at the University of Maine.

In 2019, Howorth led the pilot for the University of Maine’s Step Up to College, a program meant to model how colleges can effectively support students with autism spectrum disorder. During that five-week session, she incorporated the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, or PEERS, a social skills program for neurodivergent students developed by Elizabeth Laugeson at the University of California, Los Angeles.

...

What can accessibility offices on campuses without specialized programs like Step Up do to support students on the spectrum?

There’s lots of room for improvement on college campuses. The typical accommodations that are offered, like note takers, closed captioning or extended time on tests, are not necessarily what students with autism need.

On the bright side, when I have spoken to our students’ accessibility service, they’ve seen a large increase in the number of students with autism not just coming to university but asking for support. That’s a testament to how we as a society have enabled them to be self-advocates.

If you think of the social skills involved in finding the student accessibility services on campus and talking to a stranger about your challenges, that’s brave.

On the other hand, it can be hard to fulfill their requests without modifying the curriculum. As an example, our student accessibility services director told me that students with autism sometimes ask to be excluded from group work. That’s not necessarily an accommodation, because a lot of college courses are more interactive. Plus you have internships and job placements. Life is honestly one big group experience.So what could help in this situation is giving those students somebody to sit down with and unpack a social situation that happened, so they can ask questions like, “What could have been done differently?” That’s not necessarily counseling, because it’s not that they are having mental health issues. It’s just that they are having interpersonal social communication issues.

Antivaxxers Lose in Maine

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing disease to spread.

A ballot measure in Maine would have overturned a state law tightening excemptions for vaccinations law and let parent opt of vaccinating their children out for religious or philosophical reasons.  It lost by more than 2-1.

AP reports:

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills urged Mainers to uphold the new law, saying the spread of the coronarvirus underscores the importance of getting vaccinated.

 After the COVID-19 virus was identified in China, “one of the first things that public health officials did was begin to work on a vaccine because vaccines save lives,” she said.

The Legislature’s action last year came against the backdrop of a spike in whooping cough cases in Maine.

Maine has one of the highest rates of nonmedical vaccine exemptions in the nation, and officials warned that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rate among kindergarteners had dropped below 94%. That means half of kindergarten classes are below the “herd” immunity level of 95% immunization, state officials said.

But the antivaxxers keep coming. Alan Greenblatt at Governing:

“They are generally the most aggressive, hostile, rudest and threatening group of people I have ever experienced as a legislator,” Bob Duff, majority leader of the Connecticut Senate, told the New Haven Register Citizen after needing a security escort to leave a forum on the issue last month.

Parents who advocate stronger vaccination mandates in the media and in statehouses can find the experience to be intimidating, says [Erica DeWald, advocacy director for Vaccinate Your Family]. “These people who have lost children can be heckled when they stand up and testify,” she says.

But DeWald and other mandate supporters recognize that they have to try to match the emotion and energy that vaccine skeptics bring to the debate. Making the case clinically is not the same as making it politically.

As opposition to mandatory vaccines continues to grow, countering that movement will require compelling storytelling, not just statistics.

“It’s disappointing to see so many politicians yield to the anti-vaccine people,” says Pitney, the Claremont McKenna political scientist. “They’re buying a few minutes’ peace and quiet by jeopardizing the long-term health of school children.”

Maine Antivaxxers Target Pharma

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing disease to spread.

Antivaxxers in Maine have a slogan: "Reject Big Pharma." Lev Facher at STAT:

But the referendum that Maine voters will decide on Tuesday, known as Question 1, has little to do with drug prices. Instead, approval would overturn a 2019 law that requires all schoolchildren to receive vaccinations unless granted an exemption by a doctor. The advertisements, meanwhile, are funded in large part not by drug pricing activists but by a nationwide network of anti-vaccine groups.

The media blitz marks a new effort by anti-vaccine activists to win new adherents, and to do so by co-opting public anger toward pharmaceutical companies — not just over exorbitant drug prices but because of the industry’s role in the opioid crisis, which has hit Maine hard.

...
A recent ad barrage from the group zeroes in on Merck, highlighting the roughly $6 billion in revenue the company drew from vaccines during the first nine months of last year. While vaccine sales total billions of dollars, however, pharmaceutical companies’ vaccine profit margins are typically far smaller than for other drugs.

Nonetheless, the messaging has helped to generate a broad coalition of support for repealing the vaccine mandate. Backers of the repeal include five Republican state lawmakers, a University of Maine professor, and at least 11 local chiropractors.

But the group’s biggest contribution came from half a continent away: a $50,000 check from the Organic Consumers Association, a Minnesota group whose anti-vaccine rhetoric helped fuel a measles outbreak in Minneapolis in 2017.

...
Despite the broad public health consensus about the benefits of mandating vaccinations, the issue in Maine has become starkly partisan.

When Maine’s legislature passed the law last year, nearly every Democrat supported the legislation, while all but four Republicans opposed it.

Problems with Group Homes

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities. 

From the US Department of Health and Human Services:

This joint report is issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG); Administration for Community Living (ACL); and Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to help improve the health, safety, and respect for the civil rights of individuals living in group homes. The joint report provides suggested model practices to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and States for comprehensive compliance oversight of group homes to help ensure better health and safety outcomes. In addition, the Joint Report provides suggestions for how CMS can assist States when serious health and safety issues arise that require immediate attention.
...

In OIG’s audits of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, the State agencies did not comply with Federal waiver and State requirements for reporting and monitoring critical incidents involving Medicaid beneficiaries with developmental disabilities. These audits found that these State agencies:

• failed to ensure that group homes reported all critical incidents,
• failed to ensure that all critical incidents reported by group homes were properly recorded,
• failed to ensure that group homes always reported incidents at the correct severity level,
• failed to ensure that all data on critical incidents were collected and reviewed, and
• failed to ensure that reasonable suspicions of abuse or neglect were properly reported.

...
Our suggestions for ensuring group-home beneficiary health and safety involve four key
compliance oversight components:

1. reliable incident management and investigation processes;
2. audit protocols that ensure compliance with reporting, review, and response requirements;
3. effective mortality reviews of unexpected deaths; and
4. quality assurance mechanisms that ensure the delivery and fiscal integrity of appropriate community-based services.

Recordings and Rights in Conflict

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities.

Parents of an autistic Maine teen want him to have a recording device during the school day.  Alanna Durkin Richer reports at AP:

A novel case heading Monday to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which hears most New England cases, pits the student's parents against his southern Maine school district, which says the recording device would infringe on other students' privacy rights. His parents say they need a glimpse into his day so they can better advocate for him at a school they don't trust isn't always telling the whole story.

"Most kids can come home and tell their parents what happened at school or what the teacher had done or not done. He can't do that," said Matthew Pollack, the father of the now 18-year-old Ben.
...
Attorneys for the district say teachers and administrators have gone above and beyond to provide the parents with information about the student, who they say loves school. A hearing officer concluded last year there is "simply no demonstrable benefit" to allowing the parents to record his day and that it would actually be "disruptive and detrimental" to his education.

In other states, parents of special education students have secretly placed audio recorders on their children to expose abuse, which have led to firings or settlements. And Texas recently began requiring school districts to install cameras in certain special education classrooms.

But opponents say such actions raise serious privacy concerns.

If parents can assert a right to "send an always-on listening device to school with their children, what would this mean for students who wished to report abuse or neglect at home to a school counselor, or for students with disabilities who are LGBT?" asked Samantha Crane of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

Vaccine Exemption Limit in Maine

In Maine, the Portland Press-Herald reports:

Maine parents would have to consult with doctors before exempting their children from vaccinations required by public schools, under a bill that won endorsement from a legislative committee Friday.

But despite Maine’s relatively high vaccine opt-out rates, the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee voted unanimously to reject a separate bill that would have eliminated the philosophical exemption that has sparked a heated debate over vaccine safety and “herd immunity.”

The committee voted 9-3 in support of L.D. 471, the bill that would require any parent who seeks a philosophical exemption from vaccines to first consult with a medical professional and obtain a signature. Lawmakers from both parties supported the measure; the three dissenting votes were cast by Republicans.

“There are risks in every medical procedure and other things that we do in life, and I think parents have a right to weigh those risks,” said committee co-chair Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook. “But I think this is an important step to make sure that important conversation happens with respect to something that doesn’t just protect the child being vaccinated, but other children as well.”

The bill could face tougher votes in the House and Senate, and a potential veto by Gov. Paul LePage.

Maine now allows parents to opt out of required vaccines for their children on both philosophical and religious grounds. The vast majority of exemptions are for philosophical reasons, a trend that reflects concerns in some segments of the population that childhood vaccinations could trigger autism or health problems.

New Insurance Laws

Autism Speaks sums up new insurance laws from 2014:

Nebraska became the 36th state to enact autism insurance reform in April 2014. The Nebraska law requires coverage for state-regulated policies through age 20 for ABA and speech, occupational and physical therapies; ABA coverage is capped at 25 hours per week.

A month later, Maryland became the 37th state to enact reform by virtue of new state regulations and the enactment of a law expanding access to ABA practitioners. The Maryland law requires coverage for at least 25 hours per week of behavioral health treatment for children aged 18 months through age 5; decreasing to a minimum of 10 hours per week for ages 6 through 18.

Washington was declared the 38th state to enact reform in late 2014 after state regulators ordered all state-regulated health plans to start covering autism treatment in 2015 and to reconsider all claims for coverage that had been rejected since 2006. The order resulted from a series of class action lawsuits that led to settlements prohibiting any exclusions, age limits, monetary caps or visit limits for coverage of autism treatment.

Similar legal action led Oregon, which became the 34th state to enact reform in 2013, to accelerate and strengthen its required coverage. The Oregon law was to start phasing in this year, but was accelerated and the coverage broadened under an order issued late last year by the state insurance commissioner. Similar to Washington state, the Oregon order was prompted by a ruling in a class action lawsuit.

Coverage in Kansas is now available under many state-regulated health plans after a prolonged legislative campaign succeeded in 2014 to expand the state's original 2010 law which limited coverage to state employees. The new coverage provides up to 25 hours a week of ABA coverage for children up to age 12, declining after four years to 10 hours per week.

The Maine Legislature voted to expand its 2010 law requiring coverage through age 5 up to age 10. Gov. Paul LePage vetoed the bill, but the Legislature voted to override the veto to make the bill law.

Maine Override

AP reports:

The Maine Legislature has overturned Gov. Paul LePage’s rejection of a measure that would allow more children to receive private insurance coverage to treat autism.

The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 30-5 in favor of overriding the Republican governor’s veto on Thursday. The House followed with a 115-32 vote.

The bill would require insurance companies to provide coverage for treatment of autism spectrum disorder for children up to the age of 10. Current law only requires coverage for treatment for children ages 5 and under.

Supporters say some Maine children aren’t getting the care they need or are being forced onto Medicaid, which does cover treatment.

LePage opposed the bill because it would raise insurance premiums, including those on the Affordable Care Act exchange.

Insurance Legislation in Maine

AP reports:

 The Maine Senate has endorsed a measure that would allow more children to receive private insurance coverage to treat autism. 

Current Maine law mandates that insurance companies provide coverage for treatment of autism spectrum disorder only for children ages 5 and under. The measure would raise that to age 10. 

Supporters say some Maine children are being prevented from getting proper treatment or are forced onto Medicaid, which does cover treatment. 

Under the original bill, the covered age would have risen to 21. Maine's Bureau of Insurance said that would result in higher monthly premiums of nearly $1.50 per person. The amended measure would likely mean a smaller premium increase. 

The bill introduced by Democratic Sen. Colleen Lachowicz of Waterville faces further votes in the House and Senate.

Maine Legislation and the Affordable Care Act

The Maine insurance mandate only applies to children five and under.  In the state, Medicaid does cover ABA for severe cases but not for HFA.  A legislative proposal would fill the gap, as AP reports.

The measure, introduced by Democratic Sen. Colleen Lachowicz of Waterville, could also be a potential cost saver for the Medicaid program as some of those costs would be shifted onto private insurance, said Cathy Dionne, director of programs and administration of the Autism Society of Maine, who said she billed $860,000 to Medicaid for her son's treatment from ages 4 to 16.

In 2012, the state paid claims for more than 5,830 [sic: actually, 5,381] residents with autism spectrum disorders, which can cause social and behavioral challenges, according to a recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services. That's up 60 percent over five years, the report said.

But any bill that carries a cost will face an uphill battle this session as lawmakers grapple with a $119 million shortfall in the $6.3 billion, two-year budget and other financial issues.

The measure would result in higher monthly insurance premiums of nearly $1.50 per person, according to a report by the state's Bureau of Insurance. [Apparently the bureau took the report down.]

It would also cost the state about $742,000 a year, as the Affordable Care Act requires states to subsidize the cost of benefits mandated beyond those required under the law, the report said. Some autism treatment services will be covered under the new federal health care law, which requires insurers to treat mental health no differently than they do physical illnesses. But some companies still won't cover applied behavior analysis, according to the bureau. [emphasis added]

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/01/19/3042049/maine-examines-expanding-autism.html#storylink=cpy

Maine Bill

From Autism Speaks:

Autism Speaks has endorsed a new bill, SP.127, which would amend Maine's 2010 autism insurance reform law by raising the age of eligibilty for benefits from 5 to 21. The measure is sponsored by Sen. Colleen Lachowicz (D-Kennebec).

The current Maine law took effect in 2011 and requires state-regulated health plans to cover the diagnosis and treatment of autism through age 5. The coverage includes speech, occupational and physical therapy, as well as behavioral health treatment, such as ABA, up to $36,000 per year.

Maine was the 16th of the current 32 states to enact autism insurance reform and is one of five states seeking to expand coverage this year.

Senator Lachowicz testified for the bill:

Often families will get secondary MaineCare/Medicaid to cover ABA services, because they arethe only payor in the state that pays for this program past age 5. Then they can get the caretheir child needs from a qualified professional. An educated consumer wants to make sure theirchild receives treatment that is evidence-based from a well trained, qualified provider. In theend, the taxpayers wind up paying for something that parents want to provide for their familiesthemselves when they buy insurance. The State of Maine can save money on Medicaid bypassing this legislation

...
In 2010, the 124th Legislature passed a bill that said that insurance companies have to pay for autism services for children covered under health insurance plans up to the age of 5. The original bill specified the age of 21 but was amended in committee. This bill proposes again that insurance companies pay for services up until the age of 21. I looked at the previous legislation.One of the arguments was that once children are in school, they can access services for autism in school.

Well, I've worked in school-based behavioral health for a long time. I have to tell you that sometimes that isn't enough. If a child is having difficulty at home or in the community, the parent may need to access that professional someplace other than the school. The training level of the providers also varies greatly across school districts. School-based providers are not required to be trained in Applied Behavior Analysis, nor should they be; it is a specialty.Clinicians pick up generalist skills in working with a variety of conditions over time, but nothing replaces an evidence-based practice like ABA.

Autism Bills in Maine and Hawaii

In Maine, the Kennebec Journal reports on new legislation, using the anecdote of a Addie Bowen, a young Mainer with ASD:

Now a bill in the Maine Legislature would help more families access the specialized speech, language, occupational and physical therapies that Addie receives, known as Applied Behavior Analysis, as well as other professional developmental services.

Maine joined a national trend in 2010 when it passed legislation requiring private health insurance companies to provide coverage for autism spectrum disorders in children through age 5. The bill before the Insurance and Financial Services Committee would push the coverage requirement to age 21.

Proponents say the bill is intended to ensure a continuum of care for children who have autism but aren't covered by MaineCare, the state's form of Medicaid, and who may live in school districts where autism programs are limited.

"When you look at the range and variety of individual circumstances of people who have autism in Maine, we have children and young adults who can only get so much through our public schools," said Sen. Emily Cain, D-Orono, one of the bill's sponsors.

The insurance committee has yet to schedule a hearing on the bill.

Maui Now reports on a mandate bill in Hawaii:

A bill that would require coverage and benefits for patients with autism spectrum disorders passed committee approval in the state House today.

The House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce unanimously adopted HB721, which requires that state-regulated health plans cover the diagnosis and treatment of autism, including Applied Behavioral Analysis.

The bill was originally heard last week in a hearing that featured testimony from an 8-year-old boy named Luke, who was diagnosed with autism. During his testimony, Luke’s difficulties in communicating with others was observed firsthand by legislators as he asked for the help that he needs to better navigate the social world.

“The testimony of the brave young boy clearly illustrated the importance of early diagnosis and treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder,” said CPC Chair Angus McKelvey of Maui.

The bill, now being referred to as “Luke’s Law” is designed to equip children with the social skill set needed to better interact with others and enrich their lives.

Shortage of Child Psychiatrists

Apparently in response to Newtown,  the media are reporting on the shortage of child psychiatrists.  Unfortunately, some of the resulting stories refer to autism as a "mental illness."

From The Des Moines Register (via USA Today):

More Iowa children are being diagnosed with mental illness than in past decades, especially autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The increase in children needing mental health care and an inadequate system to help them are among an array of challenges facing this generation of Iowa's kids.

"There really isn't a children's mental health system," said Dr. Jennifer McWilliams, a child psychiatrist at the University of Iowa. "So much needs to be improved — I don't even know where to begin."

From The Bangor Daily News:

For at least 30 years, experts have been sounding the alarm about the shortage of child psychiatrists across the country. In 1980, the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee said so many children and teens were projected to need help that the U.S. would require 8,000 to 10,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists by 1990. In 1990,the Council on Graduate Medical Education said the country would need 30,000 by the year 2000.

Neither goal was met.

In 1999, the surgeon general said only about 20 percent of mentally ill children received mental health services and only a fraction of that 20 percent got that help from a child psychiatrist. Today, according to the American Medical Association, there are about 7,600 practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists in the county, less than experts said the U.S. would need 23 years ago.

Urban areas typically have the easiest time finding and keeping psychiatrists. Rural areas struggle the most.

And Maine is very rural.

“I see a huge need,” said Sandra Fritsch, a child psychiatrist and president of the Maine Council of Child Adolescent Psychiatry.

She created a map to show the number of child psychiatrists in each county in Maine. In 2011, Cumberland County had the most at 22. Androscoggin County had four.

Oxford, Franklin and three other counties had none.

The New Haven Register quotes  Gregory Fritz, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Brown University School of Medicine and academic director for Bradley Hospital in Providence, R.I..  Fritz identifies three reasons for the shortage:

It takes a minimum of five years in medical school to become certified in both adult and child psychiatry and can be longer, similar to some higher-paying specialties. More years in school mean higher student loans.

“The medical students to my eye now pay a little more attention to income … and the reason is their debt is much higher,” Fritz said. He said child psychiatrists earn about the same as general practitioners. So, many students who want to work with children go into pediatrics instead.

Insurance reimbursements are given for the service, not the time spent on evaluations or medication sessions. “The problem is it takes longer to do it for a child,” because parents and teachers must be consulted. “Fundamentally, the payment per hour is less,” Fritz said.

Finally, “there is still significant stigma about mental illness and psychiatric patients, and that stigma also applies to those who treat those stigmatized patients,” Fritz said.

Not surprisingly, the insurance companies screw up:

 The Register called several doctors’ offices listed on Aetna’s website as “Psychiatry, child and adolescent.” Of those who responded, all said they treat adolescents only, despite being listed as treating children as well.

“I will see about age 15 and my partner will see a little bit younger; he’ll see 14,” said Dr. Douglas Berv of Hamden. “I’m not trained or certified with children and that’s where you’re running into a problem.”

He said of the rosters of providers issued by insurance companies, “Their lists are never correct.”

Another on Aetna’s “child and adolescent” list, Dr. Robert Ostroff, head of adult psychiatry at the Yale Psychiatric Hospital, said he does not treat children and has heard of the problems in finding doctors who do.

“It’s been very hard to get my insured patients’ children seen by child psychiatrists,” he said. “I have people who can’t afford to pay out of pocket. … It’s a real problem.

Audio and IEP

Previous posts have discussed the issues associated with recording devices. In Maine, the Lewiston-Auburn Sun-Journal reports:

The parents of a 13-year-old Mt. Ararat Middle School student who has autism and intellectual disabilities are challenging the school district's decision to block them from sending their son to school with an audio recording device.

The school district is fighting the parents' proposal, saying it's not conducive to providing educational services and poses a threat to the privacy of other students and school staff.
A hearing made public by the parents started last week and is scheduled to continue Monday.
Jane Quirion had notified SAD 75's attorney in March that she intended to send her son, Ben, a seventh-grader who is nonverbal, to school with an audio recorder in an effort to keep him safe and to ensure that school staff were complying with the terms of Ben's individualized educational plan, known as an IEP.

Ben's father, Matthew Pollack, who is a lawyer, said the response from the school's attorney was jolting.

The attorney threatened to bar Ben from school if he were equipped with a live audio recorder, Pollack said.

"They claimed it wasn't discipline. He just wouldn't be allowed in," he said.

The school's attorney said it would have constituted a crime, as well as a violation of school policy, Pollack said. The attorney added that it would have violated the school's collective bargaining agreement with the teaching staff, Pollack said.

Prevalence: The Local Angle

The DSM revision and the CDC report have inspired a number of local news stories about the increasing prevalance of autism.  Some examples:

In Salem, Oregon, The Statesman Journal reports:

In the Mid-Valley, Tim McGee, manager of mental-health services at the Easter Seals Children’s Therapy Center in West Salem, said he didn’t have hard numbers, but it’s easy to say the numbers of autism diagnoses have gone up. The center provides services such as speech and language therapy and occupational therapy.

“It used to be there was just a couple of us mental-health therapists who saw children on the spectrum. Now we have 18 therapists part-time and full-time who will work with children on the spectrum.”
...
Amanda Smith, special-education coordinator for students services in Salem-Keizer School District, said the district has seen a “dramatic” increase in the number of students locally with autism.

She said in 2006, 18 percent of the district’s special-education students had autism. By 2010, 51 percent of special-education students were identified as having autism. [emphasis added] The district has 6,000 students enrolled under the category of special education.

"We are feeling it,” Smith said. “We’re quite proud of how we serve these students. We offer a variety of programs and services, partly out of the growth of autism in our student population.”

The Oregon Department of Education reported Wednesday that autism remains one of the fastest-growing disabilities in Oregon schools. Their numbers have increased from 317 students with the diagnosis in 1990-91 to 2,650 students in 2000-01. This year, the number is 8,694. [emphasis added]

In Maine, The Morning Sentinel reports on Winslow Elementary School:

Amy Benham, a special education teacher who heads the autism program at the elementary school, said Wednesday she was aware of the latest estimate.

"One in 88," she said. "It's scary stuff."

Over the past six years, Benham has seen the population of autistic students rise from three to its current enrollment of 10. She said the school's program is prepared to meet the growing challenge through a mix of emerging technologies, hard work and collaboration with parents.

In North Dakota, The Grand Forks Herald reports:

The Grand Forks School District, too, has seen a rise in the number of children with autism, with 76 out of 6,823 enrolled students falling into that category, according to Tori Johnson, the district’s director of special education. That’s about one in 90.

“That number keeps going up,” she said.

They may go up some more this year. Altru Health System is setting up a series of free screenings for children 12 and younger. The goal is to identify children with this disorder as soon as possible, to maximize the effectiveness of treatment, according to Diane Gunderson, manager of Altru’s Rehab Outpatient Therapy Services.

A key issue with early detection is the resistance of parents fearful of what the truth may mean for their children.

“The embarrassing thing is when parents don’t want to realize their kid is different,” said Bob Concannon, whose son Bobby, now a Central High School student, was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in kindergarten. Asperger is a disorder that falls within the autism spectrum.

The district deals with parents’ resistance by classifying some students as “non-categorical delay,” which includes children 10 and younger who struggle in school and may have learning and emotional disabilities. Some may have autism but the condition has not been diagnosed.

“It’s a way for us to serve them without identifying them specifically in a certain category,” Johnson said. [emphasis added]

New Hampshire Laws, Insurance, Seclusion & Restraint

Richard A. Cohen and Julia Freeman-Woolpert of the Disabilities Rights Center in Concord NH discuss recent legislation in their state:

Vulnerable children with disabilities got a little safer with the passage of Senate Bill 396, limiting the use of child restraint practices in schools and treatment facilities.

The Disabilities Rights Center has handled a number of disturbing cases recently where children suffered broken bones and other injuries in school and other facilities while being restrained. Expert testimony in support of SB 396 demonstrated that face down restraint can put children at risk of death. Indeed around the country children have died as a result of this type of restraint. The new law bans many dangerous restraint techniques and restricts the use of other types to only emergency situations where the physical safety of the child or others is at risk. The bill also limits handcuffing of children being transported or appearing in court. Gov. Lynch and the New Hampshire Legislature should be commended for passing the bill.

Families of children with autism rejoiced at the passage of House Bill 569, more commonly known as Connor’s Law. The law requires that private health insurance plans in New Hampshire cover prescribed treatments for autism, including speech, occupational, and behavioral therapy.

Early and intensive treatment for autism can improve the outcomes enormously for these children, much as insulin can for a child with diabetes and heart surgery can for a child with a heart condition, yet until this law was passed, the child with autism could be denied insurance coverage for treatment. Michelle Jarvis, Connor’s mother and President of the Autism Society of New Hampshire, noted, “All along, our message has been that a child with autism deserves the same level of coverage as a child seeking treatment for any other medical condition. To do any less would not only be poor healthcare policy, it would be discriminatory.”

More on seclusion & restraint:

• See an earlier story on SB 396.
• See a story on problems in Maine.
• See a story about a court case in Florida.