50% Of Children With Special Needs Are Bullied At School

B A C K – T O – S C H O O L  S U R V E Y Parents that were recently surveyed by AngelSense revealed the severity of the situation for children with special needs: 50% of parents reported that their special needs child has been bullied at least once on the way to school or at school, and almost 80% of parents of children with special needs, such as autism spectrum […]

Mainstreaming the Education of Children with Disabilities: The Teacher’s Perspective

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & DENTISTRY BY H. BARRY WALDMAN DDS, MPH, PHD, STEVEN P. PERLMAN DDS, MSCD, DHL (HON), AND MISHA GAREY, DDS “Inclusive education is a worldwide phenomenon widely advocated in the recent past. It is a philosophy as well as a principle and/or practice that is based on human rights and social justice. It advocates that children with special needs have to be educated along their normal peers in the regular […]

ABLE Accounts and Special Needs Trusts: A Side-by-Side Review

The availability of ABLE accounts is imminent. Many people have anticipated this new way to save money for a person with special needs. But does it take the place of a special needs trust? “A special needs trust and an ABLE account have some similarities, but one doesn’t negate the need for the other,” says Chris Collier1, CLU, ChSNC, who is a Special Care Planner and has earned the Chartered Special Needs Consultant designation.2 He’s […]

Federal Government Continues its Drive to Include Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Higher Education

BY ERNST VANBERGEIJK, PH.D., M.S.W. AND PAUL CAVANAGH, PH.D., M.S.W. In 2008, Congress passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA). Of particular note in HEOA was language that, for the first time, created supports for the inclusion of students with an intellectual disability in institutes of higher education. In such legislation the broad term, “institutes of higher education” (IHE) refers to two and four year colleges, as well as a variety of other trade schools […]

Going to the Movies

Brad most likely noticed that we weren’t your typical or normal family. Brad could have told us to leave the movie theater that day and possibly could have provided us a refund for our tickets, but he didn’t. Normalcy is a subjective status or characteristic that every family strives to emulate at one time or another. My husband and I will do a fist pump in celebration any time we witness anything remotely close to […]