For thousands of Texas parents, the start of the school year has taken on a new meaning: an end to the conflicts, struggles and disappointment with the public school system. A growing number of parents of special-needs children are opting out of public schools, deciding instead to home school or to pay for pricey private schools.

Newborn babies are screened, even if they look healthy, because some medical conditions cannot be seen by just looking at the baby. Finding these conditions soon after birth can help prevent some serious problems, such as brain damage, organ damage, and even death.

As President Obama has so often said, change in America happens from the bottom up.  It happens when people organize, speak out, and have a seat at the table.  Recently, President Obama met with some youth with disabilities. He wanted to hear their thoughts about the future of disability policy. So, he sat down with participants from the American Association of People with Disabilities internship program. These future leaders spent their summer in DC, interning with various organizations. 

after growing more comfortable with his new life, and his prosthetic leg, Kavanagh began feeling the cycling itch again. Before the avalanche, he had been a competitive cyclist, as well as an avid skier. He and his friends were backcountry skiing in southwestern Montana's Centennial Mountains when the avalanche struck on Jan. 1, 2005.With the support of friends and family, Kavanagh got back into cycling. In July 2006, he competed in his first U.S. Paralympic national championships. Then at a world competition in Switzerland, he said, "the fire really caught." His ultimate goal became clear: to represent his country at the Paralympic Games.

Welcome to the online guide to communication development for parents. The purpose of this guide is to provide current information about topics related children's speech, language, and communication development that may be helpful to parents. In this guide, you'll find information on commonly asked questions.

Retention policies are controversial because the research is mixed for students who are held back, but a report published on August 16th by the Brookings Institution suggests that at least for younger children who struggle with reading, repeating a grade may be beneficial.

Parents of a child with special needs will do anything they can to make sure their child is happy and in a supportive environment. When it comes to discussing your child’s education with his or her teachers and the school’s administration many parents feel they can handle it on their own. Here are ten reasons why you should consider hiring an advocate or attorney to help get everything you want for your child.

Special educators need to look at what a child can do instead of what he/she cannot do. There needs to be more emphasis on building up and expanding the skills a child is good at. Too often people get locked into a label such as dyslexia, ADHD, or autism, and they cannot see beyond the label. Kids that get a label often have uneven skills. They may be talented in one area and have a real deficiency in another.

SAYREVILLE — Communities must bring disabled residents to the table when planning for disasters because their insight is invaluable, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Disability Integration and Coordination said Thursday.

American Airlines is taking heat for requiring a teen who is nonverbal to stow the iPad she relies on to communicate during a recent flight.

Summer is almost over, and parents everywhere are experiencing that inevitable anxiety over how to make the most of the upcoming school year. In my experience, anticipating the hurdles of reentry and carefully structuring the first few weeks of school goes a long way to setting the stage for a successful year, particularly if your child has an anxiety disorder or another psychiatric condition. With that in mind, here are some dos and don'ts for families who want to start the school year right.

About 35 mental health advocates and providers gathered in a board room at St. Peter’s Hospital Wednesday morning in a show of unity, trying to prove to the man overseeing the distribution of a $9.5 million mental health trust that they’re all working toward common goals and are worthy of three grants totaling $565,400.

The Bridgeport (Conn.) Board of Education last night unanimously passed a new parent-engagement policy for the Bridgeport Public Schools that was conceived of, written, and lobbied for by a diverse group of parents.

Education policymakers and researchers have largely ignored the tremendous growth in home schooling, particularly among these sorts of “hybrid” home-schoolers willing to blur the pedagogical and legal lines of public and private education, said Joseph Murphy, an associate dean at Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University and the author of Home Schooling in America: Capturing and Assessing the Movement. The book, an analysis of research on the topic, is being published this month by Corwin of Thousand Oaks, Calif.

AbleGamers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization advocating for game accessibility in the digital entertainment space. Really fancy words for: if you want to play video games and you can’t play or have trouble playing, we help you to do so.

There are many types of speech and language disorders that can affect children. Over one million students are being served in our schools under the speech or language impairment category of IDEA, the law that authorizes special education. Do you have a student in your classroom who struggles with articulation, fluency, voice, or language? Is the student’s academic performance being negatively affected? This blog will give you 8 tips to help support students in your class who have speech or language impairments.

If your child is 6 to 12 years old, he or she may be eligible to participate in the ConnectMe clinical research program. The program includes three clinical research studies evaluating the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of an investigational drug on social interaction and communication skills in children with autism, Asperger’s Disorder, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).

Being a parent to a child with a disability, any disability, is like day after day of guiding your family’s boat through a constant storm.  For parents of a child with Fragile X Syndrome, a leading cause of autism and intellectual disabilities, the storm may seem to rage on and on. To help you get though the tough times we have provided a list of 12 must have Fragile X resources.

The field of prosthetics is perhaps the best example of humanity and technology coming together. For proof, consider this video of 4-year-old Emma, born with a muscular condition that prohibited her from moving her arms freely — until modern technology built a pair of "magic arms" customized just for her.

Wendy Lofthouse is currently teaching second grade at Paxson Eementary in Missoula, Mont., and after 17 years of teaching she marvels at the wonderment of childhood.