What's the Scam on the treatment of autism?

 What’s the scam on treatment of autism?

Want to make some quick bucks fast?  Seems to be pretty easy.  First step, find some folks who qualify for Medicaid.  Then screen them to see if they have a child (ren) who may be on the autism spectrum. If not, get a quick dx and you are on the way. Now you are in sight of that pot of gold.

Autism treatment is funded by Medicaid.  The treatment does not need to be provided by a licensed professional.   Well the treatment folks are supposed to be qualified professionals but states aren’t checking.  A large chunk of the costs associated with Medicaid are reimbursed to the states by the federal government so states are not incentivized to be all that diligent in checking credentials.  In Minnesota there was a man who set up a fly-by-night autism center claiming to provide 1 on 1 therapy. He allegedly said he worked with medical professionals.  He also employed his teenage relatives with no formal education in the field.  He raked in six million dollars before he was caught.  

Maine Medicaid pays for clinical specialists to work with children with autism in their homes.  Yet when the state inspector general (IG) investigated, she found that roughly half the families who were collecting for the service did not even have a child with the autism diagnosis.  

A center in Colorado billed Medicaid for treatment provided by staff with no professional credentials.   Some of the “treatments” for which Medicaid was billed included playing games, napping, lunch and time at a water park water slide.  Some children received as much as $15,470 per month for the “treatments”.

Fraudsters will always be around to try to game the system, whatever that system is. Parents of kids on the spectrum are looking for help and a possible cure so they are easy victims. One would think that states would realize, it’s all taxpayer dollars, just coming from another pocket and do a better job of monitoring.  Every Medicaid dollar that goes towards a scam is a dollar not available for real help for kids and their families.

 

Most Disabled Kids get the shortest straw

 Most Disabled get the Shortest Straw

Federal and State law require that children with disabilities be provided a free and appropriate education.   When a school district does not have the resources or the skill set to provide that education, it must purchase the education from a Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) approved non-public special education school.  Each year, the MSDE approves the daily tuition rate for those schools down to the very exact cent.

Costs for heating and air have gone up.  Costs for delivery of all things cost more.  Health care costs have risen.  Staff hope for some salary increase to cover the cost of inflation.  Public school budgets are rising between 4-6%.  Inflation this past December was at 2.7%.  It is now 3.3%.  

The Governor who praised himself as the education Governor, has chosen to FREEZE the tuition for non-public special education schools for the 26-27 school year.  These schools serve the most-disabled kids, yet the Governor has chosen to freeze any increase for the cost of their education.

Under Maryland law, the State must maintain fiscal effort for education.  Consequently, every Governor gets to say he has provided more money for education than any other governor.  It’s the law but the governor gets to brag about that.

Not so for the most disabled children that our State serves. Children don't get to attend a non-public special ed school unless the district says it can't provide the appropriate education.   Yet tuition for these kids doesn’t count as education.  Their teachers are not unionized so their teachers get a raise only at the benevolence of the Governor.  This year- not happening.

Long ago I was told that the pigs first to the trough get the most money.  Our kids have significant disabilities.  By the time they get to the trough, most of the food is gone.

Mississippi Miracle coming to MD

 Mississippi Miracle not so Miraculous

 

Remember the Mississippi Miracle of 2013? Through this heavily invested Science of Reading program, Mississippi 4^th graders moved from 49^th in the nation to the top 10!  The program included coaches in the public schools and every elementary school being on board.  Mississippi is notoriously a poor state.  If Mississippi could achieve this miracle why couldn’t other states.  Indeed, many other southern states jumped on Board.

Cathy Wright was the Mississippi State Superintendent at the time.   Now she is the State Superintendent in Maryland and seeks to repeat the miracle here.  She is pushing for funding.

The Miracle requires that ALL elementary teachers teach reading via the Science of Reading, a program that leans heavily into phonics.  It also employs coaches to go into classrooms to make sure teachers are “doing it correctly”.  Additionally, children who are not successful are required to repeat the 3^rdgrade. In Maryland, parents will have an option of children going onto 4th grade with additional tutoring and summer school.  Not clear what happens if the Science of Reading still isn't working. 

The big question is:  Is reading the art of translating the written letters on paper into sounds that make up words?  Or is reading the art of getting meaning and comprehension from those words.  

Turns out the Miracle may not be so miraculous after all.  Everyone has heard the aphorism, “First we learn to read; then we read to learn.”  Turns out the Science of Reading is not so great on the second part.  While it was wonderful that 4^th grade scores rose; 8^th grade scores did not.  In fact, the scores of 8^th graders in 2021 were actually slightly lower than 8^th grade scores before the Miracle.

Then there is also the Miracle by Manipulation.  Since 3^rd graders who didn’t make the grade, stayed in the 3^rd grade, the 4^th graders who were measured were the successful kids.  The others had been left behind in more ways than one.

Dr. Wright is hard at work convincing the State Board and the legislature that she can transport that Miracle to Maryland.  Hope someone is looking to see just how long lasting that Miracle is.

Are schools safe for kids?

 And you thought school was safe?

An aide in the DC public schools has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge for putting hot sauce in the mouth of a nine-year old non-verbal child on the autism spectrum because “he deserved it”.  Under an agreement, the D.C. Superior Court judge could dismiss the charge if Davis stays out of trouble and completes community service before her July 22 court sentencing.  If that happens her record will be cleansed and there will be no record of her having committed the behavior.

A teacher who saw the behavior reported it to the principal who reported the situation to Child Protective Services.  At the present time the District refuses to report on the employment status of the aide.  There is no record of her having been terminated or disciplined.  If her court record is expunged she will be free of any indication that this behavior occurred.

The incident comes in the wake of a broader investigation into the delivery of special education services by DC public schools.  The investigation began last year before the demolition of U.S Office of Education by the current administration.  So there is no update on where the investigation is heading.

The incident happened on September 11.  The mother’s attorney has informed the District of the mother’s intent to sue if the two sides cannot negotiate a settlement to the family’s civil battery claim.

The school has said it has offered “support” to the child and the family, although it is not clear exactly what that support is.  The mom has previously reported her child had come home with scratches and bruises in recent weeks.   The school told her that “probably” happened on the bus ride but there was no investigation.  Six months later, the child is still refusing to go to school and the District has not transferred him to another school.

With a clean record, no District discipline, one cannot help but wonder where the perpetrator will show up next. Just how badly do we need aides in schools?

What causes autism? Tylenol?

 Who speaks for autism?

RFK Jr has overhauled the federal autism panel.   Its job is to look at science and make recommendations for the treatment and prevention of autism.  Kennedy Jr. fired all of the members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)and appointed his own Committee.  Of the twenty-one members of the Committee, none has ever served before.  The new committee is made up of folks who have linked autism to vaccines or have advocated for treatments that lack evidence.  None of the members has any prominence within the scientific community.  They will be making recommendations for all of us.

The Autism Science Foundation and the Coalition of Autism Scientists, groups making up more than 300 researchers in the field are behind an effort to establish an Independent Autism Coordinating Committee (I-ACC).  The I-ACC will be modeled after the federal IACC, bringing together scientific experts and stakeholders in the community to create a strategic plan for autism research to guide non-governmental research funders.  Meetings will be held on the same schedule as the IACC so that the new group can responds quickly to any recommendations that are not backed by science.  The new 12-member group includes former directors of the National Institute of Mental Health and past chairs of the federal IACC.  All respected scientists, respected by their peers.

The first meeting of the newly formed group will be on March 19, the same day as the federal IACC.  Looks like the public is in for dueling notions on the causes and prevention of autism.  

One thing we can be fairly sure of is that none of it has anything to do with Tylenol.

 

Easy Does it

 Easy Does it

Your child got an A in a course?  No big deal.  In the last three decades the ease of getting an A has, well, gotten easier.  A failing grade has become far less common.

One would think that better grades means higher achievement.  Sorry, that isn’t so.  Student achievement on tests like the ACT and the NAEP has gone down as school grades have gone up.

Maybe it’s not so bad that grades are going up.  Boosting a kid’s self-concept is a good thing.  Not so, says a study that is co-authored by researchers from the University of Maryland and Harvard Grad School of Education.  Students who experienced more lenient grading were less likely to do well in subsequent courses, were less likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college.   Over the course of their lifetimes, they earned less money.

The researchers examined students  in both Maryland and Los Angeles.  The Los Angeles cohort provided data on almost a million students.  The population was about 70% Hispanic and failing grades were common.  The Maryland cohort included 250,000 of a more racially diverse population.  Graduation rates exceeded 90%

Researchers examined students whose teachers were lenient graders.  The lenient graders were defined as teachers who gave high grades to students but whose students did poorly on standardized tests.  

Examination of the outcomes for these students showed that in both cohorts showed no upside and actually damaged student chances of future success, even into the workplace.

The study does not answer the question of why grade inflation hurts kids, it just reports the data.  But one can imagine that students who get high grades that were not earned learn that they do not need to work hard to achieve success.  And as they haven’t learned the skill sets necessary to achieve in subsequent coursework.  Future course grades will deflate any confidence that A grade offered.  

It’s really easy to blame teachers on this one.  But digging deeper researchers found that teachers felt strong pressure from administrators to offer “equitable grading”.  This policy forbids zeros, allows for unlimited retakes and eliminates penalties for late work.

While it’s true that low grades are hardly inspiring for kids; this early evidence suggests inflated grades are doing them any favor either.  

Next time your kid comes home with an A, check it out.

Leftover Kids

 Leftover Kids

 

What do you do with kids for whom parents can’t care?  And then what do you do with them if no one else wants them either?  They are just leftover kids.  Folks fight for kids to be born, but after they are here it’s another story.

This past year, four foster kids under five were sent to live in a hotel, no one could care for them. This past November, the practice of housing kids in hotels while the Department of Human Services (DHS) looked for a bed was stopped after a teenaged girl committed suicide.  Kids stay in psychiatric hospitals for months after they are well enough to leave, but they have no place to go.  Seventy-five percent of foster children are STILL not  in a permanent placement after a year.  Children tend to be moved every 161 days!  Only 24% of children in foster care arrive in a permanent placement within a year. And we wonder why they have attachment disorders.  

The percentage of kids in out-of-home placements increased by 7.5% year over year 2024-2025.  There is a big push to reunite children with biological families.  In 2025, 13% of those children who were reunited, were once again removed from the family.  It isn’t clear how many more of those children would have been removed yet again if there were places to put them.

Legislative hearings are examining how the billions of dollars spent on these services are spent.  Over 70% of those dollars are federal dollars, and as we have seen these dollars can be cut on the whim of the President.  Where is Maryland’s commitment to these children?

The members of the legislature are looking at all those dollars.  Not a single child was brought to testify before the august body. These are kids' lives that are being impacted.  They are more than just dollar signs.  Sometime, we need to begin to realize that these dollars are children’s lives.  And ultimately, our lives as well, as these kids reach 18 and are dropped into the community ill-prepared for life as adults.  But that’s what happens when you are just a leftover kid.