PART TWO: AUTISM COVER-UP MONTH
PART TWO: APRIL, AUTISM COVER-UP MONTH
As we move on from Autism Acceptance Month, it’s time to reflect on what this all means.
The whole world seems eager to go along with ever-increasing numbers of eight year olds with autism. Stories in the news every April make us feel comfortable with autism. We understand autism finally. Turn on the blue lights.
The message that no one in the media seems to stray away from is that autism has always been around like it is today; we just didn’t call it autism.
Secondly, the autism we see in the news is not so bad. It’s easy to think that the kids we see in news reports are not so different from their neurotypical peers.
IF we were to see the 25 year old with profound autism who’s nonverbal, and wears a helmet because of violent behavior, and is still in diapers, we might not be so convinced.
The CDC’s statistics say that 30 percent of autistic children have profound autism. When you see rates like one in every 20 children in Northern Ireland, one in 25 in Australia, one in 23 in Scotland, one in 22 in California, it also means that a third of those affected have serious limitations.
That’s not the side of autism we see in April. Media outlets, nationally and locally, selectively present autism nice.
It’s all good news in the April coverage. Stories abound about new autism therapy centers opening all over the U.S. sensory friendly events and schools celebrating inclusion.
Stores and whole cities have become “Certified Autism Centers,” and police and firefighters learn about autism so they can deal with this population.
The dark side of April
The truth is, despite all the coverage convincing us that everything is just fine, autism is a ticking time bomb set to explode.
The best place to see the downhill spiral is not here in the U.S., but in the U.K.
Lies we accept
AUTISM HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. It took until the 21st century for the world to discover all the autism.
IF autism is nothing new, we should be able to handle things. If these children have always been here, labeled as something else, we would have had to accommodate them. Things would already be in place.
We’ve had a federal law requiring a free and appropriate education for all children, regardless of disabilities for almost 50 years, so has the U.K. Most western countries have also.
So why is autism impacting schools like it is doing? No one is allowed to ask.
Why do the numbers continue to increase? We’re told to expect even more increases in autism.
Those in important positions in medicine, government and the media have ignored autism, and if no one in authority is worried, the message to the general public is, there is nothing to worry about.
Your child may have been normally developing and suddenly lost learned skills and regressed into autism, but that just a part of neurodiversity. This is the way it has always affected children.
Your child may not speak, but we just need to be inclusive.
Your child may have serious GI problems; don’t worry, that’s often a coincidence with autism.
SO if all this it NORMAL, if it’s always been like this, why are there also MORE AUTISTIC CHILDREN?
“Increasing demand” never ends
Why are county councils all over England facing enormous deficits over the COST OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, which is really due to the impact of AUTISM.
Lancashire:
School transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities looks set to cost a council a £8.4m [$10M] more than planned.
Lancashire County Council's predicted overspend for 2023/24 has spiralled almost £2.5m [$3.1M] since it was last estimated two months ago.
Birmingham:
Birmingham's vulnerable kids and families face massive shock as £112 million [$141M] of cuts lined up
Special needs families whose children and young people rely on transport service among those facing crushing cuts. . .
In a document shared with BirminghamLive, the proposed cuts will fall on multiple services that impact young people. The council has to provide some services by law but anything else is at risk as it faces up to a £300 million [$379M] black hole in its finances.
Cheshire East:
A councillor has said Cheshire East Council's £90m [$115M] dedicated school grant deficit ‘threatens the very existence of the council.’
Cheshire East’s ballooning special needs budget deficit is so serious it ‘threatens the very existence of the council,’ a councillor has said. The DSG (dedicated school grant) deficit currently stands at about £90m. . . .
But, for many councils, the cost of SEND provision has outstripped government funding by tens of millions of pounds. To stop local authorities going bust, any deficit associated with the DSG is kept off their books thanks to a statutory override.
Bournemouth:
Schools face "terrifying" cuts as part of a government rescue plan following overspending of a council's SEND budget, a teachers' union has warned.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council has been asked to join the government's Safety Valve scheme as its deficit is predicted to be £63.4m [$81M].
Devon:
Conservative-led Devon County Council agreed a deal with the government on Thursday to get £95m [$118M] towards paying off a £163m [$202M] debt for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). . . .
The county council's children's scrutiny committee meeting heard the deficit was forecast to continue to grow to reach £207m [$256M] by 2028.
Bristol:
Bristol City Council could effectively go bankrupt if controversial reforms to special needs education are not rolled out. The government has agreed to write off millions of pounds from the council’s budget, on strict conditions which if they’re not followed, could prove catastrophic . . .
Now the council is effectively £56 million overdrawn in its education budget, and this deficit is expected to rise to £114 million [$144M] by 2028. The Department for Education has agreed to write off £54 million [$68M] of the deficit, as long as the council follows strict rules on reforming SEND support. . . .
Stephen Peacock, the chief executive of the council, said: “It’s one of our biggest issues. If we get this wrong, we’ll be effectively bankrupt, and so will 50 other places. So we have to have a go at this.”
Bracknell Forest:
A council has joined a controversial government programme to reduce its overspend on children with special educational needs (SEN).
Bracknell Forest Council said the Department for Education would pay it £16m [$20M] over the next six years.
It said in return it would build two dedicated SEN schools and put more SEN children in mainstream schools.
I could go on about the individual places across England facing bankruptcy over special education costs, but a February 24th article in the Guardian summed it all up.
Schools across England are warning they will soon be unsafe because they are having to cut teachers and support staff to save money, with record numbers now in deficit. . . .
With escalating behavioural problems, soaring numbers of children with special educational needs, and increased pupil numbers, schools say staff are already stretched to the limit. Yet heads across the country say they now have no choice but to plan redundancies or not replace leaving staff in order to balance their books.
One in eight local authority maintained schools were in deficit in 2022-23, the highest number on record since schools took control of their own bank balances in 1999, according to data released by the Department for Education at the end of January.
The underhanded response from the London government has been to offer bailout money with strings attached. For the dozens of local councils now millions in the red over SPED costs, the national government will provide funds, BUT the councils have to agree to lower the number of special needs students, put more disabled kids in mainstream schools, and stop providing special education plans at age 16.
It seems that people in the education department have missed all the news reports announcing GREATER DEMAND and MORE COMPLEX NEEDS. Just like here in America, schools in the U.K. have to provide an education for all disabled students. It is an impossibility that magically local councils are going make special needs kids disappear.
Poole:
A mother has started a parliamentary petition against emergency plans to fund children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Rachel, who has seven-year-old non-verbal autistic twins, said services were "chronically underfunded".
However, the campaigner, from Poole, Dorset, said they were being cut further under the government's Safety Valve agreements with councils.
Thirty-eight English local authorities with high overspends on education have so far joined the Safety Valve programme.
The councils have accepted temporary extra government funding in exchange for cuts to SEND spending.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council has proposed to reduce the number of children with statutory SEND plans, cease plans at age 16 and teach more SEND children in mainstream schools.
Rachel, from campaign group BCP Alliance for Children and Schools, said the "shocking" plan did not prioritise children.
"These are significant cuts to things they can't control. They can't control need," she said.
"These agreements will impact every child in every school. The situation in classrooms will deteriorate [and] schools will have fewer resources.
I could add all the stories about children across England who don’t have a special needs place. Schools are “overprescribed.”
I could list the endless reports of new special schools springing up across the country.
There is no good news when it comes to special education.
IF governments across England and the rest of the U.K. can’t handle the cost and provide the support these children need, what will the future hold as these increases continue year after year after year?