Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
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What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless. John Stone, UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic. They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years. Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
Albany, OR: School violence; "students/educators don't feel safe"
Mar 4, 20192 min read
Mar 3, 2019, Albany (OR) Democrat-Herald; Focusing on the good: Disruptive behaviors on the rise, but schools work on rewarding the positive https://democratherald.com/news/focusing-on-the-good-disruptive-behaviors-on-the-rise-but/article_8bf4f0c0-349d-5781-bdb6-92ed3851f1b9.html The Memorial Middle School sixth-grader was one of 11 students invited to the Albany Police Department earlier this month as part of the Bringing Up Learning Behavior (BULB) program, a partnership between the city, Greater Albany Public Schools and the police department.Miller, along with the other students, earned the honor of a limousine ride to the police station and an hour of bowling and pizza for taking responsibility for his past actions, turning his focus to academics and becoming more thoughtful. The event was attended by local law enforcement, parents and Albany Mayor Sharon Konopa, who congratulated the students for showing improved behavior in school. …On Feb. 5, the Oregon Education Association, the labor union representing educators, released a report that summarized the result of 14 community forums, including one held in Albany, detailing what it described as a “crisis of disruptive learning.” The report follows about three years of an increases in stories from OEA members about troubling behavior in Oregon classrooms, ranging from talking out of turn to throwing chairs.“It’s clear that Oregon students and classrooms are in crisis,” the report reads. “Students are coming to school with complex needs, students and educators don’t feel safe and schools and districts don’t have the resources to address the root causes of these incidents.”…Memorial Middle School Principal Ken Gilbert, who has been an educator for more than 20 years, said in his experience, disruptive behavior is on the rise.“It’s more than it was 20 years ago when I started, even more than it was 10 years ago, five years ago,” he said. …“Statewide and specifically in Albany, one of the challenges is an increase in pretty acute behavior. So we’re seeing behavior that is more extreme at younger ages than we have seen even in the last five years as services have decreased for youth in mental health or support services we have seen an increase in that,” she said. “I think if you asked anyone, really, in education right now what the biggest challenge they’re facing, that (behavior) would be in the top three.”