Lynda

Anyone seen this one yet?

Lynda

> How Schools Are Making
> Big Money On 'ADD/ADHD'
>
> "The so-called learning disorders have, sadly, become a way for
> financially strapped schools to make ends meet."
>
> Testimony of Patti Johnson Colorado State Board of
> Education member 2nd Congressional District before the U.S. House of
> Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing
> entitled "Behavioral Drugs in Schools: Questions and Concerns"
> http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/hearings/106th/oi/ritalin92900/johns
> on.htm September 29, 2000
>
>
> I have been a member of the Colorado State Board of
> Education for the last six years. One of my platforms when I ran for
> office was to empower parents in their right to direct the upbringing
> and education of their children.
>
> Over the years I was contacted by a number of parents who
> had been pressured to put their children on various psychotropic
> drugs for a variety of so-called learning disorders, the most common
> of which was Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In some
> cases they were told their child would not be allowed to attend
> school if he did not begin taking psychotropic drugs.
>
> One parent who was given the option of placing her son on a
> stimulant drug or removing him from school elected to home school her
> son. She told me that it just didn t make sense that a straight A
> student would be labeled "learning disabled." A Douglas County parent
> I spoke with said she was told her son had ADHD.
>
> What she was being told about the behavior her son
> supposedly exhibited and what she observed were not consistent. She
> investigated the matter and the school s special education director
> eventually admitted that she had coaxed the teacher to answer the
> questions of the checklist used to determine if the child had ADHD in
> a certain manner so her son "would get the help he needed." This
> infuriated her so badly she removed her son from the school.
>
> A Jefferson County parent who contacted me said he at first
> complied with the school s direction to have his son take a stimulant
> drug. The drug caused his son to become violent, he began taking
> steak knives out of the kitchen and stabbing his stuffed animals.
> When the parent took him off the drug, the principal of the school
> began pressuring him to resume the stimulant -- so much pressure that
> the matter is now in court and the father could forfeit parental
> rights if he disagrees with the decision of the court on whether or
> not to place his child on Ritalin. Many more examples exist.
>
> When I investigated the issue I realized that the so-called
> psychiatric learning disorders are an effort to "medicalize" failures
> in instruction and discipline at the expense of the child s well
> being and the rights of the parent. Some of the learning disorders
> listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and
> Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) illustrate this point.
>
> For example, the fourth edition lists number "315.1,
> Mathematics Disorder." The diagnostic criteria for this is
> "Mathematical ability, as measured by individually administered
> standardized tests, is substantially below that expected given the
> person s chronological age, measured intelligence, and
> age-appropriate education." Likewise, the diagnostic criteria for
> "315.2, Disorder of Written Expression" labels the child with this
> disorder if he scores low on written tests.
>
> The label of ADHD is assigned if the child exhibits such
> symptoms as not listening when spoken to, is forgetful, fails to
> finish homework, fidgets, talks excessively, etc. -- the typical
> behavior of a normal child. Parents of children said to have these
> disorders are generally told that it is a neurological disorder or a
> chemical imbalance in the brain. Yet, at a Consensus Development
> Panel conducted by the National Institutes of Health on ADHD in
> November 1998, it was reported that "We do not have an independent,
> valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is
> due to a brain malfunction. Further research to establish the
> validity of the disorder continues to be a problem. This is not
> unique to ADHD, but applies as well to most psychiatric disorders..."
>
> Educators are not allowed by law to practice medicine. Yet,
> the adjudication a child has one of these "disorders" and should be
> placed on "medication" and into special education is often done by a
> team which includes the parent, a teacher, a social worker, a special
> education teacher and the principal. The above factors led me to
> introduce a resolution before the Colorado State Board of Education
> entitled "Promoting the use of academic solutions to resolve problems
> with behavior, attention and learning." It reminded educators that
> their role was to teach and urged them to refrain from advising
> parents on medical matters. This was passed by a vote of 6 to 1 by
> the Board in November 1999.
>
> Unfortunately, financial incentives exist for schools to
> label children with learning disorders. Understanding these
> incentives requires a brief review of the laws that affect special
> education.
>
> The legislation which is now the Individuals With
> Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was originally the Education for
> all Handicapped Children Act of 1975. The intent of this legislation
> was to ensure that children with actual physical handicaps -- sight
> impairment, hearing loss, etc. -- were given the public education
> they are entitled to. This law was reauthorized in 1990 and the name
> changed to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. There
> were few procedural changes but the term "handicapped" was changed to
> "disabilities." The following year a memo was issued by the US Dept.
> of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
> which stated a child could qualify for special education if he was
> determined to have ADHD.
>
> At this time, the IDEA legislation provided schools with an
> additional $400 per year for each child in special education. There
> followed a dramatic spike in the amount of methylphenidate consumed
> in the US. According to the DEA, the production and use of
> methylphenidate increased almost 6 fold between 1990 and 1995.
>
> In IDEA as passed in 1999, the impairment category of
> "emotional disturbance." is defined in part to say the child has "An
> inability to learn that can not be explained by intellectual,
> sensory, or health factors." There is no mention of the fact that
> this may be due to a failure to instruct properly.
>
> In December 1999, the Los Angeles Times reported that tens
> of thousands of California s special education students were placed
> there not because they have a serious mental or emotional handicap,
> but because they were never taught to read properly. Reid Lyon, head
> of the federal government s research efforts into reading and writing
> told the Times, "It is where children who weren't taught well go in
> many cases."
>
> The intent of the original law, the Education for all
> Handicapped Children Act of 1975, was to ensure those with physical
> disabilities received a free and appropriate public education. These
> children are now being shortchanged because such a large percentage
> of special education funds are being diverted to vague psychiatric
> diagnoses. In 1998, 51.1 percent of special education children were
> in the category of "specific learning disabilities." These are the
> psychiatric diagnoses such as Mathematics Disorder, Disorder of
> Written expression and ADHD. Other disability categories also include
> psychiatric diagnoses. IDEA legislation also contains a "child find"
> provision which requires states to actively seek out any children who
> may qualify for special education in order to receive federal special
> education funds. The child find program starts at birth in Colorado.
> This, of course, serves to push up the numbers of children labeled
> with ADHD.
>
> The so-called learning disorders have, sadly, become a way
> for financially strapped schools to make ends meet. In many states,
> schools have become authorized Medicaid providers and funds can be
> collected in behalf of a child labeled with one of the learning or
> behavior disorders. This can be such a lucrative cash cow that in a
> letter dated October 8, 1996, the Illinois State Board of Education
> strongly encouraged the superintendent of one of its districts to
> participate in Medicaid incentives. The letter stated that Illinois
> had received $72,500,000 in federal Medicaid money in 1996 and that
> Medicaid dollars have been used for a variety of non-medical purposes
> and that "the potential for the dollars is limitless."
>
> To assist schools in identifying children to label with
> "learning disorders," a number of checklists are made available to
> schools through the ERIC (Educational Resource and Information
> Center) database, which is a federal clearing house for educational
> materials. Yet, despite the expense created by such actions, these
> children are not receiving the education they are entitled to. Though
> the standards set for special education children are often lower,
> their graduation rate in the 1995 -1996 year was only 28.9 percent!
>
> To the degree educators are expected to diagnose children,
> they are being distracted from their main duty which is to provide
> our children a quality education. Our schools are the only
> institution entrusted to attend to the academic needs of our children
> and their mission must not be diluted. I urge this committee to do
> everything in its power to get schools out of the business of
> labeling children and back to the job of teaching.
>
> Thank you. Patti Johnson Colorado State Board of Education
> Second Congressional District >