I can’t tell by the article if the special education enrollments are increased in the areas of developmental disability or in the emotionally disturbed student population, but I know where I live, and work in special education, the increases are in the violent student population. The funds are gone for getting them residential treatment where they can remain in the therapeutic setting and managed more efficiently. They are spilling into the public school system where no child left behind has stripped us of staff.

1) increased awareness in the state

2) the “If you build it, they will come” theory. By providing more services, it is worthwile for existing residents to identify their kids with problems, because they actually will get some extra help. Also, it is worthwile for those with the option to move from other states with less enlightened benefits to move to NJ. Ideally, I think it would be better if there was more federally funded treatment, so that state to state inequalities wouldn’t exist.

I’m not going to cost 3.2 Mil over my lifetime…

And neither is my son…Now he will cost a little more as the services available today is better than when I was a kid, but he may contribute more at a younger age, so it’ll likely balance out. I just don’t understand why someone felt the need to make up something like that and then use it as a generalization. Not all autistic people are a drain on society.

But then I also read a news article recently that tried to make the case that Asperger’s is not autism. This made my dislike of ABC even worse, as I know too many people (including myself) who are diagnosed Asperger’s who have many core autism traits.