In Part 1 I enumerated the many benefits of joining an online support group. But what are the pitfalls and dangers?

• Misinformation might be exchanged in online communities. Sometimes, online community members misunderstand, misinterpret, or unknowingly communicate inaccurate, second-hand information about learning disabilities and related laws, services, or research. How much information is out there and... more

Check out this article in its entirety: The Last Resort.

I’d like to report that the information in this article was “news” to me, but sadly it is NOT. Working with the Attachment Disorder Network (ADN) for the last few years, I have met families who were forced into similar situations as the families in this article. They made the hard decision to relinquish custody of their troubled child to the state system in order for the child to obtain mental health services.

It happens at a shocking... more

Being the Due Process junkie I am these days (it is consuming my life!), I came across this article: Anatomy of a Special Ed Case., which tells about a real-life due process case that was won by the parents (and appealed several times - and the parents won the appeals).

The attorney was none other than Pete Wright, known in special ed circles as the Guru -- author of the Wrightslaw website and books. The account was fascinating to me, and pointed out both how similar and how different each and every due process case is. The similarities... more

Whether the earth is round or the sky is blue truly does depend on your perspective. Or at least it seems so to me lately. ABC did a show on Foster Care entitled Calling All Angels which aired last Thursday night. I unfortunately only saw the first half, as my house was overrun with teenage girls preparing for my daughter's party the next day, and I was pulled away. However, from what I saw the show was making a true attempt to show the reality that some foster children, and the people who care for them, live. It was an honest attempt by mass media to present some basic information about what it is like to be a foster child.

But... more

I was stunned to hear a report on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday entitled, "States Underserve Disabled Foster Kids". The study describes that out of the 1/2 million children in foster care at least 1/3 of them have physical, emotional or mental disabilities.

Steven Bennett, president of United Cerebral Palsy reports that most disabled foster children have suffered significant pre-natal impacts and nearly 80% have been exposed to alcohol or drugs in-utero. The study, entitled Forgotten Children: A Case for Action for Children and Youth... more

This is a continuation of Dr. Steven Hall's open letter to Georgia Families about HCBS waivers and public education:

Georgia's new Home and Community Based Medicaid Waivers are prepared to support children and adults to live, work, and participate in full community life alongside other citizens who do not have developmental disabilities. "Places for them," day centers, sheltered workshops, and taxpayer dollars staying with the government to run institutions are being replaced and closed all around the United States, including Georgia.

Instead of facilities, buildings, and other "for the disabled only" programs, taxpayers... more

Blogger's Note: Normally, I wouldn't post something that only pertains to families in one state. But when this letter was posted on a local listserv it caught my eye for more than just the information about Georgia's Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waivers. Dr. Hall has painted a very optimistic future for adults with developmental disabilities. I found his letter encouraging and energizing. And I thought other parents of special kids might as well. I'm sorry for the length of the letter. Had it been posted on the internet somewhere, I would have just provided the link.

An Open Letter to Families who have School Children with Developmental Disabilities,... more

Now I'm not much of an activist -- or a cynic. But if I were, this whole CDC/Thimerosal/Autism controversy would surely be bugging me. I reported a couple weeks ago about the ad that Generation Rescue had placed in the USA Today newspaper, outlining their argument that not only does thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines, "cause" autism, but that the CDC purposely did not remove thimerosal from vaccines for a long time after their own studies showed a definitive connection between... more

The Associated Press reported last week that this country is suffering from a major shortage of child psychiatrists. Here's the article. Case loads for child psychiatrists are astronomical -- about 750 disturbed children is an "average" caseload.

To illustrate this, think about the numbers. If a doctor has 750 patients that he/she needs to see on a regular basis (every 4-6 weeks is a common interval). That doctor works 8-hour days, seeing patients in 30 minute session. Said doctor would need 46.8 workdays to... more

I noticed the trend not long after I started my assignment as a parent representative monitoring special education systems. A large percentage of children who were assigned the classification label of EBD (emotional/behavior disorder) or ED (emotional disorder) were foster or adoptive children. The trend was true in my daughter's class as well. She was in a self-contained EBD classroom where the numbers were always small (usually 5-6 students) and over the last three years, at least 1-2 other students in her class were either foster or adopted children.

Well, here's a web seminar that confirms my observations: Meeting... more