DOGE cuts post-school program for disabled teens
Plus: Oklahoma finally bans hitting disabled students and a call to action for the caregiver stress crisis
Medical Motherhood’s news round up
Snippets of news and opinion from outlets around the world. Click the links for the full story.
• From Forbes (opinion): “Caring for Caregivers: The Crisis of Special Needs Parent Support”
[…]there’s an overlooked group of incredibly vital people. They often receive little to no support and usually suffer in silence, too exhausted to advocate for themselves. They’re people we see and interact with daily, quietly carrying immense stress. I’m talking about parents and caregivers of children with disabilities and special needs.
These parents face a relentless, two-front war. On one side, there’s the never-ending responsibility of caring and advocating for their children. On the other, they’re battling through their own exhaustion, often neglecting their unmet mental and emotional needs just to get up and do it all over again.
It’s a clear recipe for burnout, but for these parents and caregivers, that is simply not an option. So they press forward —day after day, with no end in sight and no help on the horizon.
It’s time we acknowledge their struggles and prioritize meaningful parent support, including respite care services, for these families.
[…]It’s a daily grind consisting of constant therapy appointments, heightened supervision, specialized caregiving tasks, and an unyielding need for advocacy. Combine these responsibilities with the usual stresses of life—work, bills, household duties—and it’s no surprise that studies reveal anxiety and depressive disorders are more rampant among caregivers of children with autism than those caring for neurotypical children. Developmentally delayed and disabled children are not the only ones in need of support; caretakers are also vulnerable.
Perhaps more surprising is the extent of the harm caused by this chronic stress. Researchers studying the stress profiles of mothers caring for children with autism found they were alarmingly similar to those of combat soldiers, Holocaust survivors, and those diagnosed with PTSD. Again, the caretakers of disabled and developmentally delayed children need a reprieve.
These caregivers love their children fiercely and wouldn’t trade their lives with them for anything. While their determination and resilience know no bounds, like any parent, they deserve a break. {…]
• From Oklahoma Voice: “Senate advances bill to ban use of corporal punishment on disabled Oklahoma school children”
A bill that would ban schools from using corporal punishment on students with disabilities passed the Senate on Tuesday despite concerns it removes local control and could go against parental wishes.
The state Department of Education has already prohibited the practice, but Senate Bill 364 seeks to codify into state law a ban against deliberately causing pain by using physical discipline on students with federally protected disabilities.
“I have never, ever, ever met a parent of a disabled child call for the beating of their child to make them better,” said Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, the author.
Rader said some of the protected disabilities include deafness, emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, visual impairment or an orthopedic injury.
It defines corporal punishment as the deliberate infliction of pain by hitting, paddling, spanking, slapping, or any other physical force used as a means of discipline.
Rader said corporal punishment could not be used by a school even if a parent agreed to it.
[…]During the 2017-18 school year, over 20% of corporal punishments in Oklahoma schools were administered on disabled children, according to federal statistics.
Other forms of discipline are available, Rader said. The bill does not prohibit parents from using corporal punishment, Rader said.
Previous efforts to ban the practice have proven controversial. A similar effort last year cleared the state Senate, but died in the House. […]
• From Chalkbeat: “Teens with disabilities were getting help with life after high school. Then DOGE started cutting.”
When teens and young adults with disabilities in California’s Poway Unified School District heard about a new opportunity to get extra help planning for life after high school, nearly every eligible student signed up.
The program, known as Charting My Path for Future Success, aimed to fill a major gap in education research about what kinds of support give students nearing graduation the best shot at living independently, finding work, or continuing their studies.
[…]Charting My Path launched earlier this school year in Poway Unified and 12 other school districts. The salaries of 61 school staff nationwide, and the training they received to work with nearly 1,100 high schoolers with disabilities for a year and a half, was paid for by the U.S. Department of Education.
[…]Charting My Path was among more than 200 Education Department contracts and grants terminated over the last two weeks by the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service. DOGE has slashed spending it deemed to be wasteful, fraudulent, or in service of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility goals that President Donald Trump has sought to ban. But in several instances, the decision to cancel contracts affected more than researchers analyzing data in their offices — it affected students.
[…]The Education Department did not respond to questions about who decided which programs to cut and what criteria were used. Nor did the department respond to a specific question about why Charting My Path was eliminated. DOGE records estimate the administration saved $22 million by terminating the program early, less than half the $54 million in the original contract.
[…]For [mom Jessie] Damroth, the loss of parent support meetings through Charting My Path was especially devastating. Logan has a rare genetic mutation that causes him to fall asleep easily during the day, so Damroth wanted help navigating which colleges might be able to offer extra scheduling support.
“I have a million questions about this. Instead of just hearing ‘I don’t know’ I was really looking forward to working with Joe and the program,” she said, referring to Logan’s former mentor. “It’s just heartbreaking. I feel like this wasn’t well thought out. … My child wants to do things in life, but he needs to be given the tools to achieve those goals and those dreams that he has.”[…]
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