Sunday, February 7, 2010 
The tickets are going fast. I know the eventbrite form is a little confusing, but right now there are 50 tickets left for regular registration at $50, CLE, and CEU registrations. Please sign up right away!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 The 1998 Wakefield study showing a link between vaccines and autism has retracted by its publisher, the British medical journal Lancet. There does seem to be some cases of autism caused by vaccines, as found in 2008 in a vaccine court case, when the child has a mitochondrial dysfunction. There is unfortunately not a lot of current research on these mitochondrial diseases.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 
In reading this story about New Orleans Charter Schools avoiding enrollment of disabled students, I started wondering about the percentages in Arkansas charter schools. The average percentage of disabled students in Arkansas is 12.03% in 2008-2009. (I am not looking at preschool students in this total.) I then looked at the ADE report on special education to calculate these percentages.
2008-2009 School Year
Academics Plus,403 students, 0% disabled students
Arkansas Virtual Academy, 501 students, 9% disabled
Covenant Keepers, 121 students, 5% disabled
Dreamland Academy, 325 students, 3% disabled
Estem Schools, 895 students, 2% disabled
Lisa Academy, 433 students, 3% disabled
Lisa Academy North, 294 students, 1% disabled
Little Rock Prepatory School, not yet in operation
Jacksonville Lighthouse, not yet in operation
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 
Perhaps you've heard the terms 504 and IEP used to refer to your child's special education. What are these terms? Wrightslaw has a complete listing of the difference in this link, but here's a quick summary:
The 504 plan simply provide access to a "regular education" for your disabled child. The 504 plan gives much weaker legal protection to the disabled child. A child's 504 education plan can be changed without consulting the parents. The disabled child is also much more easily expelled or suspended in a 504 plan.
Sunday, January 31, 2010 Registration is open for the University of Fayetteville Autism Conference on March 3 and 4, a Wednesday and Thursday. Parents can attend for $70, which includes two breakfasts and a lunch. Registration closes February 19th.
The UAMS conference on April 16 and 17 is also open for registration, with parents able to attend both days for $20. The UAMS conference also starts Friday and operates all day Saturday. Click here to register.
Thursday, January 28, 2010 What’s life like for Arkansas families who have children with severe mental disabilities such as autism? One mom was telling me the following story:
“I got home from work with my three children, two 8-year-old twins who have severe autism and a small baby. I turned on the oven for a frozen pizza when one of the older boys pointed towards the bathroom. He wanted to use the potty but needed help. While I was in the potty helping the child who is not fully toilet trained, the other twin impulsively opened the oven and the baby crawled in. Luckily the oven hadn’t heated up, but how am I supposed to manage these kids while waiting for Medicaid waiver?”
Her story points to the extreme difficulties of families with severely autistic children. Her sons won’t be enjoying the summer off, because at their disability level there are no summer programs or after school programs in Arkansas. In fact the mother is unable to work regularly because of their needs.
The proposed Arkansas autism waiver has been suggested for ages 0 to 10, but these twins may never get in since they’re on the older side of the age range. The proposed waiver also would not include respite care or physical modifications to the home to ensure safety. A cold-turkey ending to services is also not going to work for the severely autistic.
Arkansas education programs are also only targeting young children, but middle and high school children are not currently served.
I think the proposed autism waiver only meets the needs of young, moderately disabled children. Yes, cases like these twins are going to be more expensive to treat. But is it really going to save Arkansas money to institutionalize these kids?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Updated on Saturday, January 30, 2010 by
EyeContactArkansas
Where can I send my child with disabilities to school? Monday, January 25th is the two-week open enrollment period for public schools in the Little Rock area, with many private schools also having admissions deadlines of early February.
Your best source of information remains other parents. A school that's good for one child, however, may not work for your child. But the more your meet, call, and email other parents, the better your knowledge of schools. There are also a lot of open houses and tours of schools right now.
There will be a meeting on "School Options for Your Disabled Child" Saturday, January 30th from 2:30 to 3:30 at Easter Seals Arkansas, 3920 Woodland Heights Road, Little Rock, AR 72212 in the Sturgis Room. A panel of parents and school officials will give brief introductions then mingle with the parents to answer more specific individual questions about your child. Please contact Marjorie Greenberg at chenaltutor@gmail.com for more information.
**Easter Seals cancelled due to ice.**
Saturday, January 23, 2010 The Arkansas waiver presented so far has children from ages 0-10 eligible for 20-40 hours a week of intensive autism therapy outside of school. The children could only stay on the autism waiver for three years, then would exit cold turkey.
Saturday, January 23, 2010 Good news, some checks have gone out to those on the autism grant waitlist. Thank you to Department of Developmental Disabilities Services and Dr. Green for releasing funds to families and adults with autism.
Saturday, January 23, 2010 Today was the deadline for filing non-fiscal bills for the Arkansas Legislature to consider. Even if the non-fiscal bill's filed, 2/3 of the legislators had to agree to hear the topic. These rules make non-fiscal bills extremely difficult to consider in the 30-day fiscal session that starts February 8th.
I know there was some interest in getting the private insurance autism mandate under consideration. I don't see any bills filed under that topic on the Arkansas legislative website. Actually, I don't see any bills at all filed on the January 22 deadline.
The next chance to pass autism legislation won't arrive until the 2011 legislative session.
