Media & Politicians Stir Up Frenzy But Won’t Report Educational “Child Find” Law That Could Have Prevented Newtown, CT Massacre
LM & AJ
Noisy Room
12/20/2012
…The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes a legal mandate requiring school districts, under the “Child Find” provision, to seek out and find children who exhibit significant problems at school, to include developmental and functional problems; not just academic problems. Most parents aren’t aware of this and the media and politicians won’t tell you about it, but all school districts know.
Under IDEA, anyone concerned about an individual can refer the student, confidentially, to the school district for assessment.
Usually, it is a teacher who refers a student for assessment. Unfortunately, due to the nationwide “budget constraint” mantra from the educational system, we are told that teachers are discouraged by their districts in the referral of students with suspected disorders and that “it’s a big waste of time as districts take no forward motion” according to one teacher who has asked to remain anonymous.
Did Lanza’s school district follow the Child Find law? Did they refer him for a psycho-educational assessment and provide the interventions and services needed? As we now know, they did not.
You may wonder, “Why at school?” Children with mental illness or disabilities experience the majority of their difficulties within and because of school. The random, unpredictable and social dynamics and demands of all school campuses generally intensify the manifestations of a child’s disorder.
Their inability to properly navigate the school environment is the first warning sign that, without proper interventions and supports, they will be unable to navigate in the real world when they reach adulthood.
Unfortunately for parents, their distraught and possibly violent child is often denied an assessment by the school district or, if given an assessment, they’re denied Special Education eligibility and/or appropriate supports and services, especially if the child is demonstrating “adequate academic progress.” Parents are often pleading and begging for help from the school.
This is where school districts misinterpret the law. Clearly, IDEA legislation requires that students who demonstrate issues of functional, social, and/or emotional development are to be assessed and the needed interventions, supports and services must be provided.
If Adam Lanza’s school district had followed the law, they would have requested Nancy Lanza’s consent to conduct a psycho-educational assessment in all areas of suspected disability, which includes mental health, in order to get to the bottom of his mental illness, thus enabling them to determine the interventions and services he needed (to include institutionalization if necessary). In addition, he would have been closely monitored via an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Adam Lanza’s problems were no secret; his brother told reporters that Adam suffered from a “personality disorder” (the clinical term is usually “sociopath” or “psychopath”). Adam Lanza’s mental illness was evident and Nancy Lanza’s problems with the school district have been reported.
Ask yourself… could things have been different if the school district had followed the law just a few short years ago? Would it have revealed the severity of his mental illness? Would interventions have been provided that may have prevented the murder of 27 innocents? We’ll never know the real answer to that question now.
But we do know his mother, Nancy Lanza, suffered in silence, was murdered by her son and friends and educators knew something was seriously wrong with Adam Lanza…
Read the complete article at Noisy Room.
Related: Media empathy for some killers, but not for others, it seems: Perverse NYT Excuses for Mass-murder: ‘Rejection and Discrimination’ in France Sent Islamic Killer of Jewish Children Over Edge
And As long as we are banning stuff…
If the 2nd Amendment is responsible for Newtown, Conn. then let’s have a look at what really kills Americans. Guilty and innocents alike. Let’s legislatively ban the obviously responsible parties in each category of unnecessary death. (using Left-think)
Justin Binik-Thomas talks to Glenn Reynolds about the lack of children’s health coverage under ObamaCare. Binik-Thomas is the author of a new article on PJ Media, where he explains how important surgery for his daughter will be unavailable under ObamaCare. Hear the details on this InstaVision.
