Eye Contact Arkansas - Blogged
Saturday
Aug202011

Increase in Arkansas Waiver Slots Dead

At the Autism Legislative Task Force today Dr. Charlie Green of DDS confirmed that new slots for ACS waivers will not be funded. In this spring's legislative session a new provider fee had been approved by the state of Arkansas. Unfortunately, while the federal Medicaid regulators had in the past approved these types of fees, the DDS application was denied.

Big, big bummer.

Monday
Aug012011

Apple Apps for Special Education

Easter Seals in Indiana recently published a lengthy group of apps for all disabilities, including low vision, cognitive disabilities, and alternative speech devices. All these apps have been tested by Easter Seals personnel, but hundreds of new apps are released daily. Keep checking the App store for recent releases that might fit your needs.

EASTER SEALS APPS LINK HERE

Autism Speaks has developed a list of autism-specific apps for families:

Autism Speaks apps LINK HERE

Here's also a special education advocacy app that gives parents answers to many questions that might come up in meetings. In both English and Spanish.

PEATC special ed app LINK HERE

Send me information about your favorite apps and I'll list them here.

Sunday
Jul172011

1 in 250 Arkansas AP Students is a Student with a Disability

Where's my chance?The federal Office of Civil Rights now has a database where you can look up your school district's racial, disability, and English language learner child statistics. The data goes back to 2009 or earlier. You can look up information by Arkansas school district or school.

Most distressing when looking at Students With Disabilities information from OCR is the lack of such students in AP classes. Arkansas has a very generous and extensive AP program, with high schools required to offer these potential college credit courses. Arkansas even covers the exam fees for all students. OCR is now reporting these AP enrollment statistics to see if minority, disabled, and English language learner children are being prepared for college.

10,285 Arkansas students were enrolled in AP classes in 2009. Of that number, only 40 students with disabilities were enrolled in AP classes. Yup, 40 students, or 0.4%, of ALL AP students, or 1 in 250 AP students, in Arkansas were students with disabilities. (2009 OSEP data shows 11.72% of all Arkansas students were students with disabilities under IDEA B.)

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Jul142011

NW Center for Autism Offers A Full Scholarship To Their School; Autism Study

On Your Mark Academy in Fayetteville has reorganized as the Northwest Center of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. I need to write an article on the wonderful things these professionals are doing for children with autism, but I just had to spread word of a full academic scholarship for a lucky family.

LINK HERE TO NW CENTER

Also at the U of A in Fayetteville, a speech language pathology Professor Kim Frazier Baker is seeking high functioning autism and Asperger's participants for a study on these individuals' abilities to control emotions. She is willing to travel to Ft. Smith and Little Rock as necessary. FLIER HERE

Wednesday
Jul132011

Developmental Disabilities Council Offers Grants Up To $1000

The Governor's Developmental Disabilities Council is now offering grants of up to $1000 to individuals and organizations in the areas of self-advocacy, parent training and transition from institutions. In state and out of state conferences are covered. The deadline is September 26, 2011.

Currently the DD Council has suspended its annual fall conference and parent leadership training conference. I am thrilled to see that regular parents throughout the state are now being informed of these various grants through postcards and posts on the DD Council website.

The DD Council also funds federal grants of hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to various nonprofits working to help the developmentally disabled. Hopefully these larger grants will in the future be energetically advertised to all of Arkansas.

LINK HERE FOR APPLICATION INFORMATION

Tuesday
Jun142011

Autism Task Force, IDEA Advisory Council, DRC

The Autism Task Force is meeting this Friday, June 17th at 1pm in room 130 of the state capitol. The task force is continuing with the same membership but needs to elect new co-chairs.  Also on the agenda are discussion of new priorities moving forward and a presentation by the Department of Special Education on future changes.

On July 14th the IDEA Advisory Council will have its quarterly meeting. In the past these meetings run from 9 to 3 at the Embassy Suites hotel in Little Rock. This panel advises the department of special education on all its policies.

The public has until August 1st to submit comments to the Disability Rights Center, a federally funded advocacy group, about its priorities and goals. CLICK HERE to submit comments on the priorities.

Thursday
Jun092011

Prescription Meds for Autism: Not Much Out There!

I closely read the child-psych blog, written by two psychologists, to get scientific information without the intimidating scientific jargon. A recent article points out that many prescription medications are not well-studied in children with autism spectrum disorders.

The vast majority of children on the spectrum get some sort of prescription drug for ADHD, anxiety, depression, obsessive behavior, or "mood control". Only a few prescription medications have any valid research in their effectiveness for children with autism:

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Jun082011

Conway HDC Lawsuit Dismissed: Facility to Stay Open

Judge HolmesWell, Conway Human Development Center must be breathing a sigh of relief as District Judge Leon Holmes finds overall in favor of the HDC.  The most important point of the 85-page decision is that Conway does allow its residents to interact with nondisabled individuals, and that ACS waiver does not necessarily do so. On the three major concerns raised by the Department of Justice, Judge Holmes found that:

  1. Conway HDC is reasonably safe and not in violation of the 14th Amendment.
  2. Conway HDC does not isolate disabled individuals and thus follows the Americans With Disabilities Act. Treatment does not substantially depart from generally accepted standards.
  3. Conway HDC does not provide special education under IDEA laws. Conway had more than six pupils per student, who each averaged 90 minutes a day of special education. Teachers were also not licensed in special education and did not update their training. However, Conway HDC is the least restrictive environment for these students.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Jun062011

Institutions and Autism: New York Times Article on Dev. Disabled

A new New York Times article details the problems that developmentally disabled individuals face in New York State institutions. The initial case describes a child with autism, 13-year-old Jonathan Cary, who went from a residential school for children with autism to a development center before being improperly restrained and suffocating. LINK HERE

What's interesting is that the problem is NOT money; New York gets $1.4 million per person in institutions! (Not a typo.) New York State spends more on individuals with disabilities than any other state. Arkansas on the other hand has some of the lowest costs per person.

Click to read more ...

Sunday
May292011

ACS Waiver Waitlists Longer, Stalled

At the Team Up Conference several families spoke up bitterly about the lack of movement on the regular waiver waitlist. ACS waiver is a program to fund community placement for developmentally disabled individuals. Respite care, various services, and escape from TEFRA premiums are some of the major benefits of ACS waiver.

The waiver program only has so many slots, with new ones created only as individuals leave the waiver or if the state government gives the program more funding. The waiver has two different groups: priority group and the regular group.

Click to read more ...