Special Needs Headlines: DC to OK to UK

• Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spells out preferred use of education stimulus aid. Here for program-specific guidelines.
  
• A North Carolina special needs department explains its budget woes.
• Educators in England call for change to special needs policy.
• An Oklahoma bill would require more expedient IEP-evaluations.

Stimulus Chest or Pandora's Box?

Federal stimulus monies should start getting released to schools this week. But some are crying saying loopholes in the bill will let schools spend the money on playground equipment and wallpaper instead of teacher jobs, the AP reports.

The law was written so broadly that most of the stabilization dollars can be spent on just about anything - carpet, wallpaper, playground equipment, even new school construction - which might bother Senate moderates who insisted on dropping a school construction program before they would vote for the bill. That's because school districts can spend the money as federal impact aid, a relatively small program for poorly funded districts. By contrast, most federal education dollars are supposed to be spent on teacher salaries or academics.

Stimulus and Autism Awareness Month

• Tomorrow the U.S. Department of Educaiton is scheduled to release guidelines on how states can spend millions in education stimulus. As they wait, Georgia public schools ponder how they'll use their funds. State Superintendent Kathy Cox says: "We’re going after every dollar out there and we’re going to spend wisely everything that comes our way.”
• As National Autism Awareness Month starts this week, some schools are saying they're having trouble meeting the needs of a growing populations of autism-diagnosed students.
• Not only are there more special needs students, it's gotten to be more expensive to educate them over the last decade, a report to Pennsylvania school board found.

Web Highlights: Stimulus Transparency, Controversial Restraint Technique, et

• The stimulus package bolsters special needs education, but it also requires increased transparency for spending. The Journal, looks at one method of tracking IDEA program progress in Maryland.
  
• In a disaster, what will your special needs riders and their families do? In Navajo County, Ariz., police and human services officials are helping to come up with plans for evacuation and shelter.
• A California judge dropped a case against a school district alleging a teacher's use of the "prone restraint" -- where the student is held face down -- left an autistic boy with a broken nose, bruises and scratches.
• A school in Canada gives children with special needs a classroom designed to engage their senses.

Monday Rundown: Stimulus, Gaffe (Again), Problems in Canada

• In Massachusets, Gov. Deval Patrick was set to order $290 million in federal for special education services. The state's education secretary said these funds are critical. "There are many very talented teachers in schools ... who have dedicated their careers to educating students with special needs," S. Paul Reville stated. "The announcement ... will directly support their work and improve the educational opportunities of all students."
• Meanwehile, education officials in Connecticut see flaws in the federal stimulus aid aimed at their state. The Hartford Courant Reports, "...$243 million is targeted to special education programs or Title 1 schools, which have a high percentage of poor children. Federal rules appear to require that the money go to new initiatives, so a school system can't just backfill a general budget shortage with the money. That's why many educators fear they could be powerless to avoid regular education layoffs while at the same time having either to hire extra special education or Title 1 staff — or give back the stimulus money."
• Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who apparently is an international coach of the Special Olympics, defended President Obama over the gaffe that on "The Tonight Show" that caught a lot of heat last week. "I know where his heart is at. He loves the Special Olympics and he would do everything he can to help the Special Olympics. And every one of us sometimes makes a mistake by something comes out of your mouth and you say, 'Oops I wish I wouldn't have said that.' I've had many of those," Gov. Schwarzenegger said.
• It's not yellow school buses, but the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that special needs transit buses are "rife with problems." Concerns include "accounts of drivers dropping mobility-challenged customers at the curb [and] leaving them to walk to their residence by themselves" and a "lack of driver training for handling individuals in wheelchairs."
• Is there a kid on the bus who just can't sit in his/her seat or just fidgets so much s/he falls right out? You may know a kid with SPD (sensory processing disorder). A parent of a child with special needs explains that the disorder "causes him to engage in activities that 'feed' his need for a lot of sensory input."