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The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA), an independent, nonprofit, §501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization of attorneys, advocates, parents and related professionals, in its March 22nd letter to Congress, rejects the conclusions of the American Association of School Administrators’ (AASA)document “Keeping Schools Safe: How Seclusion and Restraint Protects Students and School Personnel” released on March 8, 2012.   COPAA’s letter addresses each of the misleading and inaccurate arguments made in AASA’s statement, a document based only on a handful of anecdotes and unsupported conclusory arguments.

Health care providers, administrators, legislators, advocates and more gathered at the Holiday Inn in Helena on Thursday, joining forces in an effort to discuss a controversial issue gaining momentum in legislative bodies across the nation: mental illness.

GREAT FALLS -- Parents of children with special needs came together at the Capitol in Helena on Friday to advocate for improvements in Montana services for the disabled. Parents met with legislators in an effort to show them the daily struggles of getting needed services. The group met with the Children, Families, Health & Human Services Legislative Committee for a lunch before giving public testimony later in the afternoon.

The NJ legislature has passed the nation's strongest anti-bullying bill of rights for students. The bill now goes to the Governor for his signature.

The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights protects all students bullied for any reason.  The legislation maintains the language of New Jersey's existing anti-bullying law, enacted in 2002, which enumerates protection of students based on their actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and has clear language protecting students bullied for any other reason.  The law will continue to apply to students bullied for any reason.

Long-awaited legislation to replace three federal reading programs—Early Reading First, Reading First, and Striving Readers—was introduced Nov. 5 by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and would authorize $2.35 billion in funding to improve reading and writing in kindergarten to 12th grade.

Parents of developmentally disabled Montanans probably left a recent legislative forum with more questions than answers.Most of the 14 legislative candidates attending the June 17 forum at City College in Billings admitted they didn’t know much about services for folks with disabilities.To their credit, the candidates came to learn.

Info On SB 254, The Bill To Close Montana Developmental Center SB 254 creates a responsible process to shift services for people with developmental disabilities into community settings and close the Montana Developmental Center. This bill, sponsored by Sen. Mary Caferro would appoint two representatives of community providers, two parents or guardians of recently discharged residents from MDC, and advocates from MCDD and DRM to a committee to write a plan to close MDC that assures that services are appropriate, that the people are served, and the communities are kept safe.

(GREAT FALLS, Mont.) - Senator Jon Tester is backing three bills to improve care for Montanans with mental illness and to reduce the state's suicide rate. In the wake of December's tragic shootings in Newtown, Conn., Tester is concerned about services available to individuals struggling with mental illness. His bipartisan Mental Health First Aid Act aims to help community leaders identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness.

The success rate among the graduates of  America’s Special Education Programs has been studied and criticized for decades. In 2005, Dr. Frank Rusch of Pennsylvania State University and this writer addressed the issue related to the inability of young special education high school graduates to achieve success in employment, post-secondary education, adequate housing and community acquiescence. According to the study, Rusch and Pizzuro wrote: “Young adults with disabilities typically leave publicly funded educational institutions without a job, without being enrolled in postsecondary education, and without the security of knowing their roles in society. Fewer than 30 percent of high school leavers obtain jobs after departing mandated education and fewer than 10 percent enroll in postsecondary education. The past 25 years has witnessed continued poverty among young adults with disabilities, despite legislative reauthorizations aimed at improving educational opportunities (The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004) and employment access (The Americans with Disabilities Act).”

HELENA — After hearing stiff criticism of the state institution for the developmentally disabled, a legislative panel Monday voted to draft a bill requiring the state to develop a plan for closing the Boulder center by 2015.The bipartisan Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee also voted to draft two other bills to increase oversight of the Montana Developmental Center in Boulder, including placing its “client protection specialist” under the state Department of Justice.

The U.S. Department of Education released today Analysis of State Bullying Laws and Policies, a new report summarizing current approaches in the 46 states with anti-bullying laws and the 41 states that have created anti-bullying policies as models for schools. The report shows the prevalence of state efforts to combat bullying over the last several years. From 1999 to 2010, more than 120 bills were enacted by state legislatures from across the country to either introduce or amend statutes that address bullying and related behaviors in schools. Twenty-one new bills were enacted in 2010 and eight additional bills were signed into law through April 30, 2011. Out of the 46 states with anti-bullying laws in place, 36 have provisions that prohibit cyber bullying and 13 have statutes that grant schools the authority to address off-campus behavior that creates a hostile school environment. "Every state should have effective bullying prevention efforts in place to protect children inside and outside of school," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "This report reveals that while most states have enacted legislation around this important issue, a great deal of work remains to ensure adults are doing everything possible to keep our kids safe."

Before 1999, no state had laws against bullying in schools. Then there was the shooting at Columbine High School, and a wave of media attention to similar cases, where picked-on kids either sought revenge or killed themselves to combat the pain.

Only Montana and South Dakota are left without anti-bullying laws on the books.

Our consortium was created to provide information to adults with autism, their families, academics, professionals, legislators, policy makers and others and as a portal to link to our member’s sites and other relevant resources. We want to educate people about the common characteristics and differences in agricultural communities in the United States. Our website also exists to dispel the incorrect notion that agricultural communities are institutional, segregated congregate care models when, in fact, our members, residents, and day program participants are strongly woven into the fabric of their respective communities. We are non-urban, low density community based integrated models.

Autism Spectrum Disorders and Public Schools How many Montana public school students are there with autism? There are approximately 141,000 public school students in Montana’s K-12 schools and on January 31, 2012, there were 823 students with an educational label of autism. There are 16,000 students with educational disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), which is the federal legislation which determines special education eligibility. Five percent of the students with disabilities are autistic. This percentage has increased from 1 percent to 5 percent in the last seven years, as the number of students with autism has increased and the number of enrolled students (and students with disabilities) has decreased.

The White House is warning that special education will face more than $1 billion in cuts and millions more will be trimmed from other federal programs for people with disabilities next year unless lawmakers act. In a report sent to Congress Friday, the Obama administration painted a stark picture of what’s to come, detailing the impact of more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to take effect Jan. 2.

With significant public backing and support in Congress, advocates say federal lawmakers are poised to consider a major change to the money-saving abilities of those with disabilities. Just one hurdle remains before Congress is expected to take up the Achieving a Better Life Experience, or ABLE, Act. The bill — which has lingered since at least 2009 — would establish special accounts to allow people with disabilities to save up to $100,000 without risking their eligibility for benefits like Social Security. What’s more, under the plan, individuals could retain Medicaid no matter how much is deposited.