RFK Jr. and Wandering

The Politics of Autism discusses the dangers facing autistic people, including wandering and drowning.

Molly Castle Work at Minnesota Public Radio:

 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has a track record of spreading disinformation around autism, visited Rochester Friday to announce the launch of his new National Autism Missing Person Initiative.

Standing inside the Olmsted County Sheriff’s training center, Kennedy announced his agency’s partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to better support residents on the autism spectrum who are prone to wandering and getting lost. He said he wants to ensure individuals are recovered quickly and safely before they get into dangerous situations.

...

Kennedy has made autism a priority in his agency, but he consistently spreads false information about the condition, including claims that Tylenol causes it.

Kennedy says he hopes to set up an alert system, sort of like an Amber Alert, so that the public and local law enforcement are notified immediately when a resident with autism goes missing. And as part of the initiative, HHS, FEMA, and the Department of Justice will collaborate to provide communities across the country with best practices and training for first responders.

While the initiative launched Friday, Kennedy did not specify a timeline for implementation, and it’s unclear when the alert system will be active.

RFK Jr. is interrupted by his "quack" ring tone while discussing autism conspiracy theories. pic.twitter.com/fOcIC0wEbw

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) August 21, 2026

Victims of the Fraud Crackdown

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.   Scams plague the world of autism. Some involve shady or abusive providers.

The Minnesota investigations started under the Biden administration.  

Amanda Chu and Robert King at POLITICO:

A series of high-profile scandals made Minnesota the center of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration and alleged fraud in Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income individuals and people with disabilities. To avert $2 billion in cuts, the state paused Medicaid reimbursements to thousands of providers like Wright in December while it implemented new anti-fraud measures.

...

While providers and patients acknowledged the need for safeguards, they say the state’s response undermines programs that made Minnesota a leader in autism therapy and assisted living services. They also warn that anti-fraud measures could deter workers from entering the care economy and increase government spending as patients without services turn to emergency rooms or require more intensive care later.

“To think that this is going to somehow create savings is a complete illusion,” said Ed Funk, a resident of Golden Valley, a Minneapolis suburb. Funk retired in February to help his wife care for their 30-year-old daughter Sophie, who has autism and a history of digestive and developmental issues. Sophie, who is slated for surgery to remove her colon, relies on the state’s night supervision and home support programs, Medicaid services deemed high risk for fraud. She needs 24-hour care from Learnability, but the state legislature recently enacted measures to cut down home support to no more than six hours a day.

Early results of the anti-fraud crackdown have left some providers and patients questioning whether the payoff was worth the disruption. Of the 2 million claims suspended for review between January and mid-May, only 0.06 percent were denied, according to state data. Its revalidation process did not reveal cases of fraud, but the Minnesota health agency flagged 59 providers — about 1 percent of those it had to revalidate — for further review.
...

“There’s a disconnect between policy decisions and how they impact communities they serve,” said Maren Christenson Hofer, executive director of the Multicultural Autism Action Network and mother to a 15-year-old child with autism. Some of the families her nonprofit served had to quit their jobs to care for their children when providers cut services during the payment freeze.

“The fraud prevention is causing so much more harm than fraud ever did,” Hofer said. “You took a financial problem and you turned it into a problem of survival.”

Minnesota Fraud Charges

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.   Scams plague the world of autism. Some involve shady or abusive providers.

The Minnesota investigations started under the Biden administration.

Sarah Kliff and Ernesto Londoño at NYT:

The Justice Department plans to announce criminal charges on Thursday against 15 people for attempting to defraud Minnesota Medicaid and other social service programs in the state of more than $90 million, according to documents prepared to be filed in court and obtained by The New York Times.

Among the defendants are an owner and an employee of autism clinics, who are charged with submitting $46.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicaid, the public health plan that covers low-income people. Additional defendants will be charged with filing bogus claims to Medicaid for other services, including those that assist disabled people with obtaining housing and living independently.

President Trump focused attention on fraud in Minnesota after news reports and a social media video from a conservative content creator last year. Administration officials cited fraud among the reasons for sending hundreds of federal agents to Minnesota to crack down on illegal immigration.

That operation set off fierce protests and led to the killings of two American citizens early this year. It also prompted the resignation of several experienced fraud prosecutors at the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, hobbling investigations that had been underway for months.

In March, the White House started a broad initiative to combat fraud nationwide, an effort being led by Vice President JD Vance. Last week, Mr. Vance announced plans for the federal government to withhold $1.3 billion in federal payments to California because, he said, the state had failed to combat Medicaid fraud.

Fraud in Minnesota’s generous social safety net programs has been a concern for years. In 2022, it became a major scandal after federal prosecutors charged dozens of people accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a Covid-era program created to feed low-income children.

Since then, state and federal officials have uncovered significant fraud in several other programs run by state agencies. To date, the vast majority of people charged with wrongdoing are of Somali ancestry, a fact that Mr. Trump has noted with derision.

The new Justice Department charges focus on two autism clinics, Smart Therapy in Minneapolis and Star Autism in St. Cloud, Minn. The court documents describe one defendant, Shamso Ahmed Hassan, as having an ownership stake in both companies. It says that the other, Hanaan Mursal Yusuf, was an employee of Smart Therapy.

The charges describe a scheme where the two defendants along with unnamed co-conspirators “paid illegal cash kickbacks of approximately $300 to $1,500 per child” to families that enrolled their children in autism therapy services. The companies then billed Medicaid millions to treat those children for autism, according to the prosecutors’ charges.

Minnesota Fraud Update

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.   Scams plague the world of autism. Some involve shady or abusive providers.

Conor Wright at CBS Minnesota:

The five autism service centers raided by federal law enforcement on Tuesday as part of an apparent series of fraud investigations all utilize money from the same state program that two other providers have already pleaded guilty to stealing from.

For at least one expert in the field, it's a program that became unexpectedly popular to try to defraud. The Early Intensive Development and Behavioral Intervention program is designed to provide reimbursements to agencies that provide medical assistance to people with autism under the age of 21. On Tuesday, during the raids, state officials announced that the investigations at the autism service centers were directly related to EIDBI.

"This is an important action for families who rely on autism services and for Minnesota taxpayers fed up, as I am, with criminals taking advantage of the systems we have in place to deliver social services," Department of Human Services Commissioner Shireen Gandhi said, in part, in a statement.

EIDBI has been under a spotlight now for several years. According to the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, the number of provider agencies went from nearly 150 in 2020 to more than 500 in 2024. The total annual cost went from $38.1 million to $324.9 million in the same time period.

Dr. Eric Larsson, executive director of clinical services at the Lovaas Institute Midwest, said that he initially believed the program was effectively protected by the mountain of bureaucratic red tape required to get a child to qualify for the program. He began to see red flags, however, when he directed his team to start contacting providers in 2024 to help fill gaps after some agencies began to stop seeing new clients in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There were 200 that you just couldn't call them, couldn't email them, they didn't have a website. How did they get on the DHS rolls?" Larsson said.

Fraud

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.   Scams plague the world of autism. Some involve shady or abusive providers.

Wall Street Journal editorial:

Federal investigators are uncovering new layers of fraud in government programs, with a Minnesota man pleading guilty last week to bilking Medicaid by setting up a sham autism center. Meantime, a federal audit last week revealed how Medicaid autism treatment has become an open vault for fraud and abuse.

...

Minnesota is far from alone, judging by audits by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Inspector General of Medicaid autism spending in other states. An IG audit released last week estimated that 99% of Colorado’s Medicaid payments in 2022 and 2023 for autism treatment were improper or likely improper, totalling $285.2 million.

Nearly all providers failed to submit the required documentation for at least some claims, and a quarter billed the state for treatment provided by staff without appropriate credentials. Many autism centers billed Medicaid at more than $50 an hour for autism “treatment” when children were playing games, napping or eating. Many provided little more than glorified day care.
...

The IG notes that the state failed to do a “postpayment review of payments” to verify compliance with state and federal requirements. Recent IG audits of autism treatment providers in Maine, Wisconsin and Indiana have turned up similar problems. Providers frequently billed for more hours of treatment than they provided, charging Medicaid as much as $256 an hour in Indiana.

Autism treatment was often “provided by staff who did not have the appropriate credentials” and “to children who did not receive the required diagnostic evaluations or treatment referrals,” the IG reported in its Indiana review. In Wisconsin, records from 19 of 22 audited providers showed that Medicaid was billed for time spent in recreational activities.

Maine Medicaid pays for clinical specialists to work with autistic children in their homes. Yet the IG found that roughly half of children lacked documentation of an autism diagnosis or evaluation, and some 20% of providers didn’t substantiate their credentials to provide therapy. Questionable autism payments totaled $68 million in 2023 alone.

Masked ICE Agents Manhandle Autistic Woman

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.  When cops encounter autistic people, they may not respond in the same way as NT people, and things can get out of hand. Among other things, they may misinterpret autistic behavior as aggressive or defiant. Training could help.

From the Autism Society of Minnesota:

On Tuesday, January 13, Minnesota Public Radio shared a story on its social media page showing video of a woman in visible distress as she was pulled from her car, cut from her seatbelt, tackled forcefully, and carried to an unmarked vehicle by four masked ICE agents in South Minneapolis. As she was carried — suspended above the ground by her arms and legs — she can be heard clearly stating: “I am autistic and have a brain injury,” “I am disabled, trying to go to the doctor up there,” “It takes me a second to understand,” and “I am disabled and need accommodations.”

In separate social media videos posted by others, the woman is ultimately identified by name, and civilian reports confirm that she was detained and released by approximately 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. She is confirmed to be a U.S. citizen.

Context from multiple posts and videos indicates that the woman, who is autistic and was driving alone, turned onto a street in South Minneapolis as part of her usual route to her doctor’s office. Based on her statements, it is presumed that she encountered an area heavily occupied by ICE activity but did not deviate from her route. She was subsequently approached by officers who accused her of obstructing their activity with her vehicle.

In addition to widespread concern regarding the tactics demonstrated by ICE agents in this and other known incidents in Minnesota, the Autism Society of Minnesota is deeply troubled by the heightened vulnerability of citizens with autism and other invisible disabilities amid the ongoing tension between community members and ICE.

It is well documented and nationally recognized that autistic individuals, as a direct function of their diagnosis, may experience significant difficulty during interactions with law enforcement due to differences in communication, processing speed, tolerance for the unexpected, and sensory overload—independent of intelligence or intent.

Autistic people are often known to adhere to established routines or plans, despite apparent disruptions, and require additional time to process verbal instructions, particularly when under stress. Some autistic people lose the ability to plan speech or movement when overwhelmed, frightened, or confused. Autistic people are often encouraged by authorities to disclose their disability to law enforcement or emergency responders, who may misinterpret their behavior as defiance.

The woman depicted in the MPR story exhibits numerous indicators of the real and well-documented vulnerabilities that autistic individuals may experience during law enforcement encounters. These vulnerabilities are so widely recognized that the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board requires all licensed peace officers in the state to complete four hours of training focused on recognizing and appropriately supporting autistic individuals to improve safety and community outcomes. Officers must recertify every three years to maintain their licensure.

The interaction observed and recorded between the woman and ICE agents in the MPR story demonstrates no apparent acknowledgment of, or competency in, responding to a disclosed disability or de-escalating an interaction involving a vulnerable individual. Federal immigration agents are not held to, trained in, or motivated by the standards Minnesota expects of law enforcement officers interacting with disabled community members.

The Autism Society of Minnesota is deeply concerned for all autistic individuals, who are statistically estimated to be 7–12 times more likely to encounter law enforcement due to disability-related processing differences. We advise autistic adults and families to exercise extreme caution in areas of ICE activity throughout Minnesota, regardless of any intent to exercise First Amendment rights.

Finally, we call upon our city and state leaders to consider this specific risk — among many others — as ICE continues to perpetuate harm through a range of deeply concerning interactions with diverse members of our community. Our community deserves safety and access to systems informed by best practices.

Poor Oversight in Minnesota

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.   Scams plague the world of autism. Some involve shady or abusive providers.

James Walsh at The Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

To care providers, advocates and parents of children with autism, the development of the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) health care program in Minnesota is so promising and so long-awaited, it’s no wonder its growth has been explosive.

But because of that surge of interest in the program, which serves people younger than 21 with autism spectrum disorder, and the lack of oversight, advocates and providers weren’t completely surprised by the revelations last week that the FBI is investigating alleged fraud at two — and possibly more — EIDBI centers.

“The state was interested in providing access to needed services [and] equity-based access to long-underserved communities,” said Eric Larsson, executive director of clinical services at Lovaas Institute Midwest in Minneapolis. “And, if everyone follows the rules, there’s no problem. Not everyone followed the rules.”

The program is funded by the state and federal government. Since 2017, the state reported nearly $700 million in Medicaid EIDBI reimbursements. That includes nearly $229 million in 2024 payments through Nov. 27. At the same time, the number of EIDBI providers who diagnose and treat people with autism spectrum disorder has increased from 41 in 2018 to 328 last year.

Last week, the FBI raided St. Cloud and Minneapolis autism centers as part of an investigation it said revealed “substantial evidence” of millions of dollars in fraudulent Medicaid claims. No charges have been filed yet.

FBI Searches Minnesota Providers

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.   Scams plague the world of autism. Some involve shady or abusive providers.

J. Patrick Coolican at The Minnesota Reformer:

The FBI served search warrants Thursday at two autism treatment providers, as part of a wide-ranging Medicaid fraud investigation first reported by the Reformer in June.

The search warrants were served at Smart Therapy Center in Minneapolis and Star Autism in St. Cloud.

FBI Special Agent Kurt Beulke wrote in an unsealed warrant application that the state autism program has exploded in both the number of providers and cost in recent years: “The investigation has found substantial evidence that many of these companies have been submitting fraudulent claims for (autism) services that were not actually provided or that were not covered.”

According to the warrant application, employees of Smart Therapy were “18 or 19-year old relatives of the owners who had no formal education beyond high school and no training or certification related to the treatment of autism.” Many of the children did not appear to be autistic, according to a witness. The same witness said they believed parents were being paid to bring their children as part of the scheme.

Both Smart Therapy and Star Autism billed the state even when the provider — who was ostensibly giving treatment to a child on the autism spectrum — was out of the country, according to the warrant.

Back-to-School Measles

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

CDC:

As of August 29, 2024, a total of 236 measles cases were reported by 29 jurisdictions: Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

There have been 13 outbreaks (defined as 3 or more related cases) reported in 2024, and 69% of cases (163 of 236) are outbreak-associated. For comparison, 4 outbreaks were reported during 2023 and 49% of cases (29 of 59) were outbreak-associated.

 Sheila Mulrooney Eldred at Minnesota Public Radio:

A measles outbreak that began in May in Minnesota has spread to 30 people, primarily infecting children in the Somali community. One dugsi, or Islamic religious school, has voluntarily closed in order to curtail the spread, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

About a third of the patients have required hospitalization, a state spokesperson said. All but one were unvaccinated.

The outbreak brings the state to 36 measles cases this year.

Measles is endemic in many countries, including African countries that Minnesota’s Somali families visit in the summer months. Seven people contracted the respiratory virus from travel, state health officials said.

“So when people who didn’t vaccinate and then travel outside of the country where measles is still existing, they contract it and then it spreads here because we have a close-knit community with big families,” said Sheikh Yusuf Abdulle, executive director of Islamic Association of North America. He has requested that people attending this weekend’s annual convention consider their vaccination status before attending.

“We’re concerned because 36 is a big number,” said Sheyanga Beecher, a certified nurse practitioner in pediatrics at HCMC and medical director of Hennepin Healthcare Mobile Health. “And, school’s around the corner. It’s been spreading a lot in child care centers, areas where people congregate. And next week kids are going to be congregating on buses, in classrooms, in hallways … so it has the potential to increase.”

Meira Gebel and Tina Reed at Axios Portland:

Oregon's recent measles outbreak — one of the largest in the state's history — is refocusing attention on declining childhood vaccination rates as kids head back to school.

Why it matters: Oregon has one of the highest vaccine exemption rates for kindergartners in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Studies have found an increased risk of infection from vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, which is potentially fatal, among exempt children.

Threat level: There have been 30 confirmed cases of measles in Oregon as of Wednesday, all among unvaccinated individuals. A dozen of those cases are in children under age 10.

Sarah Boden at Spotlight PA:

Preventing the resurgence of measles and other childhood illnesses, like polio, requires nearly universal vaccinations, which isn’t the case in Pennsylvania. During the 2019-2020 school year, the kindergarten vaccination rate for measles was 96.4%, according to data analyzed by the state Department of Health. In 2022-2023, that rate dropped to 94%. If the number of unvaccinated kids creeps further upward, Pennsylvania could face a public health crisis that is entirely avoidable.

 

An Investigation in Minnesota

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.   Scams plague the world of autism. Some involve shady or abusive providers.

Deena Winter at The Minnesota Reformer:

The state of Minnesota is investigating 15 autism providers and has already completed other investigations, withheld payments due to credible fraud allegations and forwarded cases to law enforcement “when appropriate,” according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

DHS said in a statement that these investigations “follow a national trend of identifying fraud in Medicaid-funded autism services.” DHS administers Minnesota’s version of Medicaid, known here as Medical Assistance, which is a federal-state health plan for poor and disabled people.

The Reformer reported in mid-June that the FBI is investigating possible fraud in Minnesota’s autism program, which has exploded in growth since launching in mid-2015.

The number of providers — who diagnose and treat people with autism spectrum disorder — has increased 700% in the past five years, climbing from 41 in 2018 to 328 last year. The amount paid to providers during that time has increased 3,000%, from about $6 million to nearly $192 million — according to DHS data.

“DHS has systems in place to identify fraud, waste and abuse, and the agency takes swift action when we suspect or find it,” the agency said in a statement to the Reformer. “Early identification and access to services are life-changing for people with autism – especially children. That’s why it’s so important to make sure every dollar spent on services is accounted for.”

Minnesota doesn’t license autism centers, but DHS is studying the prospect. When autism providers enroll for reimbursement through Medical Assistance, DHS verifies that they have the appropriate credentials. But beyond that, DHS is not out in the field checking in on what’s happening in autism centers.

Antivaxxer Loses in Minnesota

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures.

Steve Karnowski at Associated Press

Democrat Tim Walz won a second term as Minnesota’s governor on Tuesday, fending off a challenge by Republican Scott Jensen, a family practice physician who grabbed national attention with his vaccine skepticism.

Walz led Minnesota through the COVID-19 pandemic -- including lockdowns, school shutdowns and business closures. He also led the state through the unrest that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. He made his support for abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign.

...
Jensen had a reputation as a sometimes-moderate maverick from suburban Chaska during his one term in the Minnesota Senate. But he veered sharply to the right in the early days of the pandemic, not only criticizing the Walz administration’s response but also flirting with questionable treatments and the anti-vax movement.

Before the election, Geoff Brumfel reported at NPR:

Anti-vaccine proponents used to exist in both Republican and Democratic circles, but the pandemic saw them shift definitively to the political right. It was there that they found allies fighting lockdowns and masks. Republican politicians, particularly on the far right, have eagerly brought anti-vaccine forces into their tent. Anti-vaccine activists appear regularly at some popular right-wing political events, and some politicians have appeared on anti-vaccine shows in recent years.

Among them was Scott Jensen, a Minneapolis-area physician and state senator, who pushed medical misinformation throughout the pandemic. Speaking to anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree in 2021, Jensen said that hospitals distorted the number of COVID-19 deaths. He has also questioned vaccine safety and pushed ivermectin — a drug that has been proven to be ineffective at treating COVID but continues to be promoted as an alternative therapy in anti-vaccine circles.

 

Antivax Kook Running for Minnesota Governor

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures.

 Andrew Lapin at JTA:

When the Minnesota GOP’s nominee for governor invoked Kristallnacht and Hitler at a recent anti-mask mandate rally, it was a by-now familiar scene: a public figure comparing life under COVID-19 restrictions to the days of Nazi rule.

But on Tuesday, former State Sen. Scott Jensen did something unusual: he doubled down.

“I want to speak to a little bit of a hubbub that’s been in the media lately about whether or not I was insensitive in regards to the Holocaust. I don’t believe I was,” Jensen said in a Facebook video. “When I make a comparison that says that I saw government policies intruding on American freedoms incrementally, one piece at a time, and compare that to what happened in the 1930s, I think it’s a legitimate comparison.”

It was a markedly different approach to a cycle that has continued on repeat since the initial COVID outbreak in 2020: A public figure declaring that mask mandates and lockdown measures, usually instituted by Democrats, have something in common with Nazi policies, before reversing course following pressure from Jewish groups and Holocaust memorial organizations. That was the case with Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson; New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino; antivax activist Robert Kennedy Jr.; and others.

But unlike those other figures, Jensen stood by his words, saying, “It may not strike your fancy — that’s fine. But this is how I think, and you don’t get to be my thought police person.”

Jensen, who received more than 90% of the Republican vote in Minnesota’s Aug. 9 primary, was responding to a recording of him at an anti-mask rally in the state in April, where he said that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s COVID policies were comparable to Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” that heralded the beginning of the Nazis’ antisemitic mass violence.

“If you look at the 1930s and you look at it carefully, we could see some things happening, little things, that people chose to push aside — ‘It’s going to be okay. And then the little things grew into something bigger,’” Jensen said at the rally, in a speech captured on video. “Then there was a night called Kristallnacht — the night of the breaking glass.

“Then there was the book burning, and it kept growing and growing, and a guy named Hitler kept growing in power, and World War II came about. Well, in a way, I think that’s why you’re here today. You sense that something’s happening, and it’s growing little by little.”

The rally was sponsored by Mask Off Minnesota, a group that spreads COVID-19 misinformation. Jensen, a licensed physician, is himself unvaccinated and has made public comments in which he has questioned the efficacy of COVID vaccines and other pandemic policies.

Subminimum Wage Issue in Minnesota

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

Political conflict involves ideas and arguments for which the information is often murky, incomplete, interpretive, and open to manipulation. Just about everything concerning autism is subject to dispute. What is it? What causes it? How many different kinds of it are there? Who has it? What can we do about it? Is it even the right problem to be thinking about? All of these questions, and many others, are the stuff of bitter political battles. The stakes are high: according to one estimate, the national cost of supporting people with autism adds up to $236 billion per year. Of course, such numbers themselves entail controversy. An alternative perspective is that they do not represent the cost of autism, but rather the cost of discrimination against people who have it, and the failure to help them lead independent lives.

Chris Serres at Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Minnesota would become the fourth state in the nation to prohibit employers from paying people with disabilities less than the state’s minimum wage, under a proposed measure that would phase out the decades-old practice by 2024.

The legislation, which passed a state House committee this week, would force dramatic changes at approximately 100 centers across the state, known as sheltered workshops, that benefit from a loophole in federal labor law that allows them to pay people with disabilities based on their productivity, rather than a fixed hourly rate. In many cases, their pay amounts to just cents an hour for basic tasks, such as packaging merchandise, scrubbing toilets and shredding paper. These state-subsidized workshops, which provide a broad range of support services, employ nearly 10,000 people with disabilities — among the most of any state, according to Minnesota workforce officials.
...
Proponents of the legislation maintain that a gradual phasing out of subminimum wages would enable the state to avoid costly sanctions and would give state workforce officials and families time to develop alternative employment options in the community. “Everyone deserves to earn a minimum wage,” said Jillian Nelson, policy advocate for the Autism Society of Minnesota. “But we can’t just kick people to the streets.”

Still, the measure faces vigorous opposition from many parents of people with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities, who fear their adult children will lose support services and have nowhere to go if the local workshops close. In many smaller towns, these parents maintain, the workshops — sometimes called “day activity centers” — are the only option for community engagement and employment. In some rural communities, workshops are also the primary source of transit, shuttling people to and from work and activities in the community.They also provide a vital source of social interaction for people who would otherwise be stuck spending their days at more isolating group homes, parents maintain.

Antivax Lawmakers in Minnesota

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.

Ricardo Lopez at Southernminn.com:

The small but vocal group of parents propagating fringe views about the safety and effectiveness of childhood immunizations have found unlikely allies — Minnesota lawmakers.

Through personal and official Republican Senate media channels on Facebook, as well as appearances at an anti-vaccination rally last year at the Capitol, more than a dozen state legislators in the House and Senate have lent the support of their elected offices to groups that medical professionals say are sowing disinformation about vaccinations. Other Minnesota lawmakers made appearances at a February 2019 event featuring vocal anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Minneapolis Club.

The Minnesota lawmakers include state Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, chair of the Senate Human Services Reform Finance and Policy committee, who formed the Minnesota Autism Council, an advisory panel. His decision to appoint two vaccine skeptics touched off criticism, given the 2017 measles outbreak in Minnesota, which was attributed to the work of anti-vaxxers spreading disinformation among the Somali community.

...
Kolina Koltai, a researcher at the School of Information at the University of Texas, has been studying the social media behavior of those active in the anti-vaccination movement for five years. In the past two, Koltai said she has detected a shift in partisan ID for those opposed to vaccinations, with Republicans increasingly more likely to sponsor legislation undermining immunizations.

“There’s a politicization of science that is happening,” Koltai said, likening it to the debate over climate-change, in which skeptics include many prominent Republicans who continue casting doubt on the scientific consensus.

Studying Prevalence in Minnesota

The Politics of Autism discusses legislation before Congress.

On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on several bills including the reauthorization of the Autism CARES Act.  The testimony of Amy Hewitt, Ph.D. the Director of the Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota

The Autism CARES Act has helped to build a critical infrastructure to further advance our understanding of autism. The Autism CARES Act supports several important programs. It supports the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, a group of programs funded by the CDC to estimate the number of children with ASD and other developmental disabilities living in different areas of the United States. The CDC also established regional centers of excellence for ASD and other
developmental disabilities. They make up the Centers for Autism and Developmental
Disabilities Research and Epidemiology Network (CADDRE) that are working in part to
help identify factors that may put children at risk for ASD and other developmental
disabilities.

Findings from the Minnesota-Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring  etwork (MN-ADDM) helps us to understand more about the number of children with  Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the characteristics of these children, and the age at which they are first evaluated and diagnosed.

This is the first time Minnesota has been a part of the ADDM network, and we are building our geographic area. Through this work, we know that 1 in 42 8-year-old children were identified with ASD in 2014. We now know that boys were 4.6 times more likely to be identified than girls and that there were no significant differences found in the percentage of white, black, and Hispanic children identified with ASD.

The findings in our report reflect a limited number of children concentrated in a large metropolitan area. Through the reauthorization of the Autism CARES Act, we are hopeful that we will be able to increase our scope geographically and include the lifespan of individuals with autism. This is particularly important because in addition to the  race/ethnicity categories routinely studied by CDC, in Minnesota we were interested in understanding prevalence for our local Hmong, Somali and other immigrant populations. Expansion of the geographic area in which we gather data is the only way we will be able to know with certainty if differences exist among these groups in Minnesota.

1. Read the IEP 2. Trust No One. 3. Push Back

In The Politics of Autism, I write about special education and laws that affect students with disabilities, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  School districts prevail in most due-process hearings.  Here are some reasons:

School districts have built-in expert witnesses in the form of teachers and staff.  They also have full access to all relevant information about a proposed placement, and often deny parents access to those programs in advance of hearings. When parents’ experts can observe children in class, districts can limit their observations.   More important, parents have to foot the bill for their experts because of a 2006 Supreme Court decision that IDEA does not authorize reimbursement of witness fees. “While authorizing the award of reasonable attorney's fees, the Act contains detailed provisions that are designed to ensure that such awards are indeed reasonable,” Justice Alito wrote for the majority. “The absence of any comparable provisions relating to expert fees strongly suggests that recovery of expert fees is not authorized.” It goes without saying that this decision disadvantages all parents, and especially those with modest incomes. 

At The Albert Lea Tribune, Sarah Kocher reports on an investigation into a Minnesota school district where parents raised concerns about their 18-year-old daughter graduating before she was ready.

Alexa Newman received special education services from Alden-Conger Public Schools since kindergarten. Legally, through a federal law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities are eligible to continue receiving a free public education until they are 21 years old.

Parents Amy and Kory Newman filed a special education state complaint with the Minnesota Department of Education in May alleging the district violated IDEA and at times did not meet Alexa Newman’s individualized education program.

“It’s just unfortunate that you trust somebody … that they’re doing what’s best for your daughter and here to find out it’s like OK, they’re just going through the motions,” Kory Newman said.

...
Kory Newman said he took full responsibility for not being engaged in his daughter’s IEP from the time she was in kindergarten all the way through her education.

“We didn’t know better,” Amy Newman said.

That has changed.

“I know more about special education now than I ever thought I would,” Kory Newman said. “I sat up at night reading.”

Amy Newman wondered how many children should have received services past 18 through SMEC and did not because their parents did not fight.

She said the couple is not filing a lawsuit. They have two younger children in the district. Now, they are looking ahead and behind at other families with students in special education. She said she wants other children to get what the law says they are entitled to: special education through age 21.

“We shouldn’t have had to fight this hard,” Amy Newman said. “… In our minds, too many have graduated, gotten their signed diploma and missed out on the opportunities.”