A “very productive” meeting about “ongoing dangerous conditions” on the campus of the JCCA Westchester Campus in New York was held at the end of July between Mount Pleasant Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi, the police chief and state officials, reports News12 Westchester.
The JCCA’s Pleasantville Cottage School is home to emotionally troubled boys and girls, ages 7-16, with educational, behavioral and emotional challenges.
Town officials and others have been urging for the facility’s closure. A July 12, 2023 release from the Town of Mount Pleasant laid out the crisis, noting in part that “during the first 6 months of 2023, the Mount Pleasant Police Department responded to 459 calls at the campus for incidents ranging from assaults, violent altercations, missing persons and vandalism.
“In 2022, the Mount Pleasant Police/emergency services responded to over 760 calls at the JCCA campus in Pleasantville, New York. Based on the first six months, this year’s call volume will exceed 1,000, a record.”
Dozens of teens with serious mental health issues are increasingly being sent to live at the Pleasantville Cottage School, NBCnewyork.com reported in December 2022. “They’re very sick kids,” JCCA CEO Ron Richter told the news site. “We’re not licensed or funded to provide the level of care to children who are psychiatrically sick the way we have them now.”
The JCCA, headquartered in New York City, has 37 programs that include foster care, residential treatment facilities, mental health services, case management, education programs and special services for children who have been the victims of sexual abuse.
The Boost reached out to the JCCA for comment but has not yet heard back.
Photo: Vecstock
The Albany Times Union reports that New York’s Board of Regents unanimously passed new regulations preventing teachers from restraining students face down or isolating them alone in rooms they can’t leave. It also approved a provision clarifying that corporal punishment is banned in all schools.
The practices affect a disproportionate number of students with disabilities nationwide. Such students represent 12% of students in public schools but 58% of students placed in seclusion or involuntary confinement. They are also 75% of students physically restrained at school and make up 25% of students arrested and referred to law enforcement.
The board’s action came less than a year after a Times Union investigation documented problems with public and private schools’ use of the methods on students experiencing behavioral crises.
The investigation, published in October 2022, was the product of a year-long national effort by Hearst Newspapers. I can’t recommend it enough. Of course, it’s continued its reporting (see: article above), so check out the paper’s website for updates.
Also, for the backstory, try NY Education Dept. Presents Proposals to Limit Physical Restraint on School Kids.
Anniversary celebrations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law on July 26, 1990, have been more impactful in some years than others. Let’s take a look at what was announced at this year’s celebrations by the Biden-Harris administration and Gov. Kathy Hochul in Albany.
(ADA-related activity is not limited to the information below.)
Albany was a little bit quieter than in it was 2022, when Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a legislative package to strengthen the rights of New Yorkers with disabilities. On this year’s anniversary, the governor held a celebration at The New York State Executive Mansion in Albany and, more substantially, made an official commitment to New York becoming a model employer for people with disabilities.
The executive order, which is for the State workforce only, is multi-pronged and touches on issues including the recruitment and hiring of individuals with disabilities, disability awareness training, and the requirement that each State agency, within 30 days of the order, designates someone responsible for overseeing the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of employment strategies to hire, retain and promote people with disabilities. This person will also serve as a contact person for agencies including the Office of the Chief Disability Officer.
(It’s worth noting that the COVID-19 pandemic led to soaring unemployment rates for people with disabilities, and these rates have not declined as quickly in New York as they have nationally, the New York State Comptroller’s office reported in April 2023.)
This year, the state also launched in July the anti-stigma campaign that last year’s ADA-related legislative package required the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities to develop and implement. Check out Learn all about the “Look Beyond My Developmental Disability” campaign.
The k12dive.com website has just produced a two-part series on a recent trend concerning children served by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): The nearly 100% increase in the number of school districts identified as “significantly disproportionate.”
In the past few years, “more districts across the country have likewise been identified with special education programs that are over- or underrepresented by race,” the news site writes, “but increasingly, the federal government, states and localities are trying to understand the phenomenon, and make fixes.”
“Significantly disproportionate” describes the disproportionate number of students of color (with the exception of Asian students) being identified for special education, placed in more restrictive educational settings and disciplined at “markedly higher rates” than their peers, according to The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD).
RELATED NEWS: OSEP Fast Facts: Race and Ethnicity of Children with Disabilities Served under IDEA Part B
Its specifics are complex and range from issues concerning systemic racism to conflicting data.
Let K12dive.com explain the ins and outs. Part One of its series looks at why racial disparities are increasing, and Part Two focuses on solutions.
The Direct CARE Opportunity Act, created to help meet the growing demand for direct care workers, improve working conditions, and support seniors and people with disabilities, was introduced back into the U.S House Committee on Education and the Workforce on July 18, 2023 by Representatives Bobby Scott (Va.) and Susan Wild (Pa.).
The legislation invests more than $1.8 billion over five years in training and increasing opportunities for direct care workers nationwide.
In a statement on his website, Rep. Scott writes that “between 2020 and 2030, the direct care workforce is projected to add more than 1.2 million new jobs. Unfortunately, despite this growing demand, direct care workers continue to earn low wages and experience unstable working conditions. The current median wage for direct care workers is $14 an hour and the rate of injury among direct care workers is nearly eight times higher than other professions.
Photo: Antoni Shkraba via Pexels.com
A school resource officer program in the Metro Nashville school district raises questions about the growing national trend, the National Gallery of Art apologizes for removing a visitor with a disability, and more news for the week ending Aug. 5, 2023.
Why Disability Advocates Are Concerned About School Resource Officers Following the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tenn., the Metro Nashville Police Department is deploying more school resource officers throughout the school district. The increased police presence has some people, including disability advocates, concerned, especially as national data shows that students with disabilities and students of color are disproportionately impacted by SROs. (nashvillescene.com)
Feds Extend Lifeline To Disability Service Providers Federal Medicaid officials say they will extend some flexibilities for home and community-based services that emerged during the pandemic in a bid to help the beleaguered disability services sector stay afloat. (Disabilityscoop.com)
Iona Prep, differently-abled students host basketball game to conclude summer program Students from the school teamed up with differently-abled students thanks to a partnership with the South East Consortium for Special Services. (westchester.news12.com)
Asbury Park rules ruin day at Jersey Shore beach for visitor with disability An ordinance against tents meant Marina Lombardi, who has severe disabilities and needs “more protection from the sun and the heat than an umbrella can provide,” was asked to leave. (app.com)
Virginia: ‘Everybody is Frustrated’: Feds Probe Virginia’s Handling of Special Education Parents and advocates say lax oversight of districts left students without meaningful services during and after pandemic-related school shutdowns. (the74million.org)
Washington: High School Serves As Model For Inclusive Learning A look at one of 16 sites in Washington that partnered with the University of Washington’s Haring Center for Inclusive Education to work on inclusionary practices. (Disability Scoop)
Idaho: ‘We were heard.’ Gov. Brad Little funding gets Idaho teachers trained on dyslexia While the new dyslexia requirements were enacted last year, school districts didn’t receive state funding to implement them until this year. Lawmakers in March approved $1.5 million to supplement the costs over the last year. (idahostatesman.com)
Clothes for kids with disabilities get better, but teens see a lack of fashionable options A mom who worked in fashion before her son was born with muscular dystrophy now raises awareness about the need for designers and retailers to embrace adaptive clothing. Adidas, and others, are on board. (Apnews.com)
National Gallery of Art apologizes following removal of visitor with disability The National Gallery of Art in D.C. has apologized after a visitor with a disability was removed for violating the museum’s bag policy despite their disability — an incident that prompted the museum to ensure it doesn’t happen again. (wtop.com)
The Future of Design Is Designing for Disability Accessibility should not be a grudging afterthought. With planning, it can lead to elegant, beautiful, and engaging art. (thenation.com)
Opinion: A greater society begins by properly caring for the overlooked Greater funding is needed to support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the providers who help care for them.
3 Vibes To Avoid In Disability Campaigns For a disability campaign to be ethical as well as successful, planners must consider carefully what kinds of appeals should and shouldn’t be used. (Forbes.com)
The New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) is developing its five-year, 2023-2027 Strategic Plan in collaboration with its stakeholder partners. The plan, found here in several languages, includes key goals and objectives that will guide the work of the agency toward a system that hopefully can operate more effectively.
The plan’s goals include:
OPWD is hosting in-person and virtual forums to share updates on its progress and hear feedback.
The forums (which have started) will be held in person on July 28, July 31, Aug. 3, Aug. 9, Aug. 10 and Aug. 14. Virtual forums are being held Aug. 11 and Aug. 15.
A record label to promote the work of people with disabilities, Just Call Me By My Name, has been launched by Daniel’s Music Foundation, a non-profit based in New York City that provides free music programs and events for people with disabilities from 3 years old to adults.
Its first release, distributed by The Orchard, is a compilation called (naturally) Just Call Me By My Name, Volume 1, and it features a variety of wonderful musicians. They include Daniel Trush (co-founder of Daniel’s Music, who you can read about below) & Gerry Powers, and 12-year-old opera singer Iolanta Mamatkazina, who’s blind. The video below is a really fun look at who’s on the album.
Daniel’s Music Foundation, which launched in 2006, was inspired by Daniel himself. In 1977, at age 13, he was playing basketball when an aneurysm erupted. He spent 30 days in a coma, during which time his father, Ken Trush, says he made a promise that if Daniel survived, the family would make meaningful contributions to the community. (See him speak about this and more in a moving TedX Broadway Talk he did with Daniel, below.)
Daniel survived and thrived. After more than a year in the hospital and rehab, he came home. For several years he used a wheelchair, relearning how to walk and, when he began taking steps on his own, he made the New York City marathon a goal. In 2007, he reached it, completing the course.
Daniel played the trumpet before his long hospital stay, and afterward, he played the keyboard and sang. This connection to music led the family to launch the foundation.
“We thought that music was the great equalizer,” Trush told Gothamist. “We felt that if people, music lovers — and almost everyone’s a music lover — understood the talent, maybe judgment would lessen, and they would just sit back and enjoy the music.”
New legislation to expand access to the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) program has been introduced by U.S. Senator Bob Casey, chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.
The ABLE Match (Making ABLE A Tool to Combat Hardship) Act would remove some of the financial barriers low-income Americans with disabilities face when enrolling in the ABLE program, which allows people with disabilities to save more than the $2,000 asset limit required in federal assistance programs such as SSI.
Currently, many people with lower incomes are discouraged from opening ABLE accounts because they don’t have sufficient funds. The ABLE Match Act helps people with lower incomes participate by creating a federal dollar-for-dollar match for new and existing ABLE accounts held by individuals that make $28,000 annually or less. The match then tapers off for each dollar a person earns over $28,000.
You can read more about it CNBC.com.
Photo: Pexels.com
A 15-year-old nonverbal autistic teen in New Jersey reportedly was kicked out of a movie theater for needing to use the bathroom, reports nj.com.
There’s no family restroom at the Cinemark in Hazlet, N.J., according to the news site, and the teen, his mother said, is not equipped to go “in a public setting alone.” So, they went into the women’s bathroom. Things did not go well.
Check out the quick-read article, as well as last week’s piece on Bedford, N.Y.’s new Neurodivergent Task Force.
Image: Pikisuperstar on freepix.com