Saturday, August 20, 2011 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, August 1, 2011 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.
Autism Speaks has developed a list of autism-specific apps for families:
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, July 17, 2011 
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.)
Eye Contact Arkansas | Comments Off | Email Article | Share Article | Permalink | in Arkansas Department of Special Education, Local School Districts Thursday, July 14, 2011 
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.
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
Eye Contact Arkansas
One family has positive comments about Dr. Baker's study:
"We traveled to Fayetteville Monday to see Dr. Kim Fraizer Baker. My grandson is involved in her study. It took less than an hour and they will call me when they need to see him again. He is an Aspie. I encourage anyone who can participate in this study to do so."
Great to hear this positive review, let us know your opinion both good and bad on Arkansas!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 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.
Eye Contact Arkansas | Comments Off | Email Article | Share Article | Permalink | in Arkansas Public Agencies, Autism Training Tuesday, June 14, 2011 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, June 9, 2011 
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:
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 
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:
Monday, June 6, 2011 
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.
Eye Contact Arkansas | Comments Off | Email Article | Share Article | Permalink | in Conway Human Development Center, DHS, Division of Developmental Disabilities Services Sunday, May 29, 2011 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.
Eye Contact Arkansas | Comments Off | Email Article | Share Article | Permalink | in Division of Developmental Disabilities Services, Medicaid