Fewer Students, But More with Autism and Other Special Ed Needs in California
By Anne Dachel
While California politicians focus on removing vaccination rights from healthy citizens, its schools face unheard of budget pressures from ever mounting special education costs.
On May 12 the Los Angeles Times reported that local school districts were “hitting the panic button” over costs despite a huge 21% increase in the state’s special education budget.
Reporter John Myers pointed to “the rapid growth in expenses for special education.” He wrote, “More children are qualifying for additional services, particularly those diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.”
MORE CHILDREN ARE QUALIFYING
Many of these kids have really severe and costly needs. ‘When you look at the dollars that reach the actual schools, the increase in overall funding is being outstripped by the increase in mandated costs.’
Back in March, the Marin County Independent Journal had a similar story. It seems that while enrollment in the district is going down, special education costs are rising. This makes for a big money problem and they have to make budget cuts of $1.8M.
“ ‘This $1.8 million is just the beginning,’” said trustee Ross Millerick, referring to continuing challenges from rising pension costs, declining enrollment and flat per-student revenue from the state.” …
“Hawkins said another significant factor this year was a steep rise in special education costs. … ‘The costs for special education are up over $750,000 this year,’ Hawkins told the board on Tuesday. ‘This is the largest increase in over 20 years.’”…
No one seems willing to ask the obvious in these stories: Why are special education costs and numbers increasingly a problem, especially if enrollment is down?
While some may blame federal special ed mandates, it’s also true that these requirements have been there for decades. They’re nothing new.
WHAT is new are the statistics on special education students, and it’s really alarming.
In a May 28th story from Ed Source, reporter John Fensterwald wrote, “Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders agree that the state should significantly increase funding for students with disabilities.
And while a 21 percent increase in special ed funding may seem like a lot, critics say that “fewer than a quarter of the state’s school districts would qualify for any of the new money.”
Tucked into Fensterwald’s story was this telling statement: “Overall student enrollment statewide is declining, but the proportion of students with expensive-to-treat disabilities, primarily autism, has exploded from 1 in 50 special education students in 2001-02 to about 1 in 8 in 2016-17.”
Maybe the headline on this story should have been, Educating increasing number of autistic students strains school funds. Autism is taking over special education in California. If this kind of thing continues, in another 15 years one in 2 special education students will have autism. Or maybe by then one in every 2 regular ed kids will be on the spectrum. With no end in sight when it comes to increases, who knows.
It is simply unfathomable and inexcusable that reporters can report these alarming figures with no explanation. The same charge should also be made about the elected officials who see these increases in disabled children along with the soaring costs and merely try to accommodate the disaster.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism.
I’ve long hypothesized that in the future, the only children that will be left in the public school system will be those with disabilities and those living in severe poverty. All other children will be homeschooled or will attend private school. California is obviously moving quickly in that direction.
Posted by: Jill | June 02, 2019 at 10:29 AM
Julie,
Your evidence about the attitude to "autism" and other "developmental" problems in our school children should serve as a wake-up call to the many parents reading this website. Because we are mostly educated, middle class families in respected positions in society, I believe people we meet are too polite to tell us what they're really thinking. We get the truth about that from some of the online trolls, that they believe we are abusing our children and that is what causes their autism. The rest of them just treat us with absolute hatred, without really being able to explain why. I have often said here that I myself, who suffer from "mild" autism, have more than once been accused of having been abused as a child, which I deny. We can't fight this thing together unless we understand our enemy!
Posted by: Grace Green | June 02, 2019 at 06:30 AM
When I grew up in the 1950s everyone caught measles, mumps, rubella, and chicken pox and stayed home for a week or two with no severe damage from the illnesses and went on to grow up normally. Today we have 1 in 8 autism diagnosed children whose brains have never recovered from the damage these vaccines inflicted. This tragedy was forced on us young and unaware parents who had never heard the word autism as it was once so rare it only occurred in 1 in 10,000. So now we, the families, are left to suffer along with our damaged children and adults who got that way due to the greed of the pharma industry and lack of caring by the CDC and the FDA. Society cannot possibly sustain the support of all the thousands of autism diagnosed people and the future of our country is in peril.
Posted by: Gayle | June 01, 2019 at 09:41 PM
The National Children’s Bureau has published the best estimate possible about this hidden group of children, showing that 49,187 children were reported as missing education (CME) at some point in 2016/17.
Take July for example. July is a fourteen year old girl who found it difficult to make friends at primary school. Later diagnosed with autism, July started missing lessons in secondary school and then stopped attending school entirely. She started attending a special school but wasn’t able to get the help she needed; she’d get into arguments with teachers and run away. The school kept suspending July because they said they couldn’t keep her safe. With no other schools nearby that could help, July stopped attending school altogether and instead spends her time alone at home, while her mother is out at work.
https://www.ncb.org.uk/news-opinion/news-highlights/missing-education-hidden-children
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | May 31, 2019 at 05:23 PM
Bob,
The "inexcusable response" by elected officials and reporters .. can also be assigned to all involved in education. It is positively incomprehensible that all involved exhibit a callous indifference as increases in disabled children rise as enrollment decreases.'
I'm in the education system and I speak up as often as I can. I am up against the huge 'ACES' (Adverse Childhood Events) propaganda. In other words, it's the parents’ fault. This despite the huge increase in neurological problems aside from the behavioural. Most older teachers who have witnessed changes over time in student populations, swallow the 'ACES' garbage. I find it unbelievable (which it is).
Anne S,
It's about time people pushed for schools for the unvaccinated/not vaccinating any longer. Imagine how healthy that school population would be compared to the norm. If they are forcing mandates on children to enter school, surely taxpayers (and everyone, in fact) who object deserve the same education as others or at least support for home schooling.
Julie
Posted by: Julie | May 31, 2019 at 03:57 PM
@Bob - the costs for autism are staggering, and encompass more than just special education. From Autism Speaks' statistics:
"The cost of caring for Americans with autism had reached $268 billion in 2015 and would rise to $461 billion by 2025 in the absence of more-effective interventions and support across the life span.
The majority of autism’s costs in the U.S. are for adult services – an estimated $175 to $196 billion a year, compared to $61 to $66 billion a year for children. "
https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-facts-and-figures
And from JAMA, the cost of supporting an individual with autism through his/her lifetime is $2.4 million in the U.S.
https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2014/06/11/jama-autism-can-cost-million-over-a-lifetime
I don't understand why these numbers aren't raising an alarm. Perhaps because the money comes from a number of different budgets?
Posted by: Aimee Doyle | May 31, 2019 at 12:09 PM
The numbers of Special Education students in the past several years has Exploded in California while overall student enrollment has declined. Any casual observer can see it is children on the spectrum. In 2002 it was 1 in 50 children, in 2017 it is 1 in 8 and that number does not account for the children that have not been officially diagnosed. There are parents in such denial that they work overtime to keep their children on track. I applaud those parents but let's remember that at least one third of these kids cannot speak, must wear diapers and cannot be independent so I assure you it is not that third. Let the nation and the World look to California who passed SB277 forcing more and more Neurotoxic Aluminum, Thimerosal, Cancer Promoting Formaldehyde, Human Fetal Cell DNA which is 60 years old and therefore Tumorigenic, cells from Pigs Dogs monkeys, Ether MSG Polysorbate and many other chemicals in the so called name of "Health" in order to be allowed in public schools. It is these chemicals that are meant to trick and inflame the immune system-particularly the Aluminum, that will cause the brains to swell and as the swelling diminishes the different parts of the brain will no longer be able to communicate with each other. This Brain Encephalitis is what we call "Autism." It has been reported that 79.4% of babies that die from SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome were vaccinated that day. These past two years since SB277 began have results that should Outrage any parent, family member, neighbor, community, teacher, school, state or Politician.
Posted by: Shelley Tzorfas | May 31, 2019 at 12:08 PM
Ohhh, I understand finally.
The birth rates are down, and so that is how they can say fewer students are coming in. What few are still there to be educated they require autism and, and --- "other" special education.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 31, 2019 at 09:43 AM
Kicking kids out of school because they won't vaccinate (because they've been injured) is a win-win for CA - not only do they get to (discriminate I mean) turn those dirty children away, but they also get to save money on special education.
Posted by: Anne S. | May 31, 2019 at 07:45 AM
"It is simply unfathomable and inexcusable that reporters can report these alarming figures with no explanation. The same charge should also be made about the elected officials who see these increases in disabled children along with the soaring costs and merely try to accommodate the disaster."
The "inexcusable response" by elected officials and reporters .. can also be assigned to all involved in education. It is positively incomprehensible that all involved exhibit a callous indifference as increases in disabled children rise as enrollment decreases. That "the proportion of students with expensive to treat disabilities, primarily autism, has exploded from 1 in 50 spec education students in 2001-2002 to about 1 in 8 in 2016-2017" is absolutely terrifying for future generations.
Unfortunately, it should surprise no one after Harvard's report that 54% of today's generation has some neurological/biological/physical development problems .. up from 12% in the SAME 2001-2001 time frame.
And .. NO ONE SEEMS UNDULY CONCERNED .. EXCEPT FOR HOW TO PAY FOR THIS DIASTER.
Instead everyone involved .. legislators, educators, media, public health .. EVERYONE .. take great comfort our children are being protected from VACCINE PREVENTABLE DISEASES .. such as .. measles, mumps, ruebella, chickenpox.
Our public health bureaucracies should be very proud of the wonderful job they are doing.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | May 31, 2019 at 06:35 AM