Bipolar Label Increases 40 Times

The number of children and youth labeled as bipolar increased 40 times from 1994 to 2003. The frequency of the diagnosis has increased even further since then.

The numbers come from a study just published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Many believe the jump comes from more aggressive diagnosis. Because of the size of the increase, some question the validity of the diagnosis.

Bipolar teens and children experience massive mood swings. During their manic stages, they may feel surges of energy and confidence. They might make grandiose plans that never come to fruition. They might also make impulsive decisions that violate the law.

These manic stages are soon followed by debilitating depression. They fail school. They might self medicate using alcohol and illegal drugs. As in their manic stages, they may make poor choices which lead to trouble with the law.

Families with bipolar children often retain my firm for representation in juvenile justice proceedings and special education. These families often find that the juvenile justice system offers little help. In many cases, inappropriate responses from juvenile justice might actually obstruct the family's efforts.

Punishing teens for bipolar behavior won't cure their disorder. Fortunately, a combination of medical intervention with mental health therapy can help these children become productive.

However, the pace of the medical and legal interventions might contradict each other. The juvenile court demands immediate compliance with its orders and conditions of probation. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist might need time to experiment with different combinations of drugs. Some of the medicines might need several weeks to take effect. Concurrently, your family needs training and community resources. Your child may require talk therapy over several months.

At the same time, the school system should evaluate your child for eligibility for special education and related services. If the bipolar mood disorder interferes with school, your child might need an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to receive a free, appropriate public education.

Our firm helps families with bipolar children in all these systems. We ensure that the juvenile justice system coordinates with the mental health system to keep your child safe and compliant. We advocate for the school to provide an appropriate education so your child can succeed and stay out of trouble. We refer your family to public and private resources to learn how to manage your child's behavior while interacting with larger social systems.

You can get more done for less effort by acting before disaster strikes. If your child may be experiencing symptoms of bipolar mood disorder, seek early professional help.

Danny's IEP

A client sent this video to me. My client's son is autistic. The school district wants to move him away from his home school, where he attends with his twin sister. Instead, the district wants to educate him in a more restrictive setting in a distant school. We filed a special education due process request to keep him in the least restrictive environment.

In this video, a family in Maryland compellingly communicates to their son's IEP team how their son's autism affects his learning. They emphasize that their son can and does learn. He just learns differently than other children without autism.

The video provides an excellent primer on autism and special learning tools such as ABA. The video lasts about 9 minutes and 14 seconds.

Audit Urges Coordination Of Programs For Young Children

In my law practice I see the delayed results of problems which could have been prevented by early intervention in a child's first years. Early childhood intervention could prevent later issues involving special education, school discipline, and juvenile delinquency.

A Kansas audit released yesterday found that state agencies could better coordinate programs for such young children. The study found multiple agencies offered similar programs for the same population. However, the auditors found no indications of wasted tax dollars or failed programs.

The programs serve 40 percent of Kansas children under the age of 5. The 23 programs provide immunizations, therapy for special-needs toddlers, abuse prevention efforts, parenting training and assistance to poor mothers. The services cost $310 million last year.

Legislation passed in Kansas this year will create an Office of Early Childhood Education by 2009. The new agency could have a role in coordinating services; however, the specific authority of that agency has not yet been clarified.

I support any effort to ensure services reach the children who need them. At the same time, Kansans should feel assured from this audit that these essential services already work mostly as intended.

Do Vaccines Cause Autism In Children?

On Monday the U.S. Court of Federal Claims began hearing the first of nine test cases to determine if vaccines cause autism in children. The test cases could ultimately determine the outcome of 5,000 similar claims.

In the first test case, the parents of a 12 year old contend that their duaghter's vaccines contained a preservative called thimerosal. This preservative, they allege, weakened their daughter's immune system. Consequently, their daughter now suffers from severe autism.

Disabled Students Deserve Education in the Least Restrictive Environment

Students with disabilities must receive a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Federal law requires schools to educate children with disabilities in the same classes as children who are not disabled "to the maximum extent appropriate."

A child with a disability can be removed from the regular education environment only when the "nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in the regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily."

Courts interpret these requirements in different ways. Some federal courts, including Kansas, use a two part test:

• First, the court determines whether education in a regular classroom, with the use of supplementary aids and services, can be achieved satisfactorily.
  
  
• Second, if the court determines that the education in the regular classroom is not satisfactory, then the court determines if the school district has mainstreamed the child to the maximum extent appropriate.

Other jurisdictions, including Missouri, hold that a disabled student should be separated from her peers only if the services that make segregated placement superior cannot feasibly be provided in a non-segregated setting. For example, a child may be removed from the mainstream setting when:

• the handicapped child would not benefit from mainstreaming;
  
  
• any marginal benefits received from mainstreaming are far outweighed by the benefits gained from services which could not feasibly be provided in the non-segregated setting; or
  
  
• the handicapped child is a disruptive force in the non-segregated setting.
  

Mental Health for Children and Adolescents

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This video provides instruction about mental health issues in children and adolescents. Although the production quality is not great, it contains some information that might help a child and a family. It addresses:

• Understanding Of Mental Health
  
  
• Causes
  
  
• Families Assisting
  
  
• What To Look For
  

High Quality Child Care Prevents Depression

Impoverished children who experienced high quality child care incurred less depression as young adults than their peers. These findings were reported in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Child Development by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Washington at Seattle.

Research shows a connection between childhood poverty and later mental health issues. Providing impoverished children with high quality child care protects them when they become teens and adults.

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Rights of Parents of Students with Disabilities

The United States Supreme Court on Monday issued a unanimous ruling upholding the rights of parents of students with disabilities. The case, known as Winkleman v. Parma City School District, held that parents have independent, enforceable rights under special education law. Those rights go beyond procedural and reimbursement related matters to encompass also the entitlement to a free, appropriate education for their child.

The dispute in this case arose when the parents of a child with autism spectrum disorder filed a lawsuit against their school district. Normally, only attorneys can represent other people in court. The school district successfully dismissed the lawsuit because, they said, the parents had no right to represent their child in court.

On appeal, the Supreme Court reversed that decision. The court said that the parents represent real parties in interest in special education cases. Therefore, they may appear in court to represent themselves, even if they would not be authorized to represent their children.

This ruling represents a victory for parents in many ways. The court reiterated many of the rights parents enjoy under special education law. According to the Supreme Court, parents play a "significant role" in the process of determining the special education for their children. Some of their rights include:

• They must be included in the IEP team.
  
  
• The concerns parents have for enhancing the education of their children must be considered by the team.
  
  
• The IEP team must revise the IEP when appropriate to address certain information provided by the parents.
  
  
• The education must be provided at no cost to the parents.
  
  
• The parents must participate in the decision making process regarding the provision of a free appropriate education to their child.
  
  
• They might be reimbursed for their attorney fees if they prevail in a due process hearing against the school.
  

Read and Talk With Young Children

Reading and talking every day with young children helps them develop socially, emotionally and intellectually. British Columbia Interior Health offers these suggestions:

• Book time each day to read and talk, and sing songs with your child.

• Talk about what you and your child are doing during everyday activities.

• Talk slowly, clearly, and with both facial and verbal expression.

• With young children, use single words, phrases, or simple sentences.

• Once your child starts to copy you, try saying things like “Look what I found!” – and then pause – to encourage your child to respond and be a conversation partner.

Early detection of communication difficulties is key. Parents and caregivers are often the first to note signs such as:

• your child is not talking at the level you expect for his/her age; or,

• you need to routinely interpret to others what your child has said.

If you suspect that your child has difficulty communicating, contact your nearest school. Your child might be eligible for educational services even before kindergarten.

Children's Mental Health: The Elephant In the Courtroom

Many of our cases involve mental health issues. However, the cases appears under the guise of child custody disputes, juvenile law and special education.

The real issue remains the failure to diagnose or treat mental illness. Since no one recognizes the mental health issue, though, courts try to resolve these cases under traditional concepts of child custody or juvenile law. Sometimes it seems like mental illness is the elephant in the courtroom that everyone pretends to ignore.

Last Wednesday was National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day. To mark the occasion, Katie Couric from CBS news posted this one minute video about ignoring mental health issues in children. She cites that two thirds of children with mental health issues do not get treatment. She uses the perspective of the tragedy of Virgina Tech to show the importance of addressing the mental health needs of children and adolescents.

Copycats Threaten Schools

These past three weeks I received numerous calls from parents of kids who have made threats at their schools. The number of cases seems to have increased since the tragedy at Virginia Tech. The threats usually involve fantasies of mass killings or threats against specific individuals. In no case were the threats anything close to actual plans, but they alarm nonetheless.

• In one of my cases, a student wrote a threat on the bathroom wall about a mass shooting. I filed his appeal to the school's manifestation determination to try to prevent him from being expelled from school.
  
  
• In another case the teen posted threatening comments against a teacher on his MySpace. He also brought knives to school. He is charged in juvenile court with criminal threat and possession of illegal weapons.
  
  
• At a teen meeting last week, some of the students told me their school had been placed on lock down after a student threatened his ex girlfriend and brought a gun to school.
  

My Kansas juvenile practice is not just anecdotal. Kids are emptying schools around the country by making alarming threats. Incidents have been reported in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Colorado, to name a few.

A juvenile in upstate New York was sentenced to 18 months in juvenile prison for making threats to a high school security guard. In California, students skipped school by the hundreds after a student posted a threat on MySpace.

Special Education Basketball Manager Scores Big!

Check out this inspiring video of an autistic special education high school student. He served as manager of his school's varsity basketball team. In the final four minutes of the last game of his senior year, his coach allowed him to suit up and play.

His classmates brought pictures and posters to support him. His first shot missed by several feet. His second shot missed also. Thereafter, he scored six three point shots-- a school record! His classmates carried him off the court as their new school hero.

Parents Tell Schools, "Don't Touch My Child."

Twice this week parents met with me about inappropriate discipline of their children at school. The schools were using physical restraint and confinement. Because of previous life experiences, the children already suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and other serious emotional disturbances.

When the children physically resisted being manhandled and confined the schools called police. The parents were concerned about losing their children in juvenile court. One of the children, who had been adopted from Eastern Europe, panicked, fought or ran whenever police appeared.

Interestingly, the children were not problematic outside the school setting. They still exhibited the same behaviors that caused concern for the school. However, their parents and other caring adults had learned how to redirect their behavior without physical restraint.

Both parents used the techniques recommended by Ross W. Greene in his books Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach and The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children. They were frustrated that the schools refused to consider those approaches as an alternative to physical restraint.

We are helping these children by demanding that the schools perform a Functional Behavioral Assessment. If the school's Functional Behavioral Assessment is inadequate, we might demand an Independent Educational Evaluation at public expense. Based on these assessments and evaluations, we will devise a Behavioral Intervention Plan that will become a part of the Individual Education Plan for these children.

The parents of these children were wise to deal with the issue proactively. By using the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act we can prevent inappropriate physical abuse and court involvement.

Missouri Senate Considers Bill To Educate Children In Foster Care

The Missouri 94th General Assembly passed House Bill No. 827 , an act relating to the educational needs of children in residential care facilities. The bill now goes to the Missouri Senate.

The act remedies some of the educational problems faced by that children in residential care facilities. These children are often transient, changing residential placements and schools every few months or even weeks. They sometimes face stigma and discrimination.

The problems surfaced in a particular way at a youth residential care facility south of Kansas City. Their school district attempted to deny an education to the children residing at the facility. The district wanted to force the children into "home bound" education at the facility for only a few hours a week.

I had the privilege of being called by the management of the facility to advocate for the children. For my effort, I was honored as a 2006 Outstanding Family Advocate by Cornerstones of Care, a partnership of agencies that provides therapeutic treatment services for children and their families.

We realized that while advocacy for the individual children was important, we needed to find systemic solutions. We therefore joined with other service providers through the Missouri Council of Children's Agencies to propose the pending legislation.

If the bill becomes law, children in residential care facilities will receive a full day of school. If they cannot be educated in the regular school, the bill provides for educating them at the residential facility.

How To Keep Disabled Kids In School

I just resolved a case in which a school was trying to expel my client, a child with Asperger’s. He is considered gifted with intelligence. He has a talent for foreign languages, having learned five of them including Chinese. However, his Asperger’s often causes him to act clueless regarding the context of his actions. The case raised the issue of whether he was being expelled for his behavior or for his disability.

Special education law requires that children with disabilities have the same right to a free, appropriate public education as their non-disabled peers. A student can’t be denied a public education just because of a disability. However, when that disability results in misconduct, the issue becomes murky.

If the misbehavior is a manifestation of the disability, then the child should not be expelled. Otherwise, the child can be expelled, but still must be provided an education in an alternative setting.

In the Asperger’s case, his special education team decided by a vote of 5 to 3 that his behavior was not a manifestation of his disability. However, the team refused to consider important information from a therapist. We requested expedited due process to appeal the manifestation determination. Yesterday, we resolved the case on other grounds which permitted the student to return immediately to his school.

Scott Wasserman Speaks at Horizon Academy

Last night I was privileged to be a guest speaker for parents and staff at Horizon Academy , a specialized program to educate students with learning disabilities. Horizon Academy's goal is to help students with basic skills and to learn strategies so that they can successfully return to a traditional school. The student body is coeducational and serving students from first grade through high school.

I love that school. The entire community feels energized. Parents who had given up hope find a caring, dedicated and sophisticated staff eager to help their child succeed.

My presentation focused on the special education rights of students in private schools. Students in private schools might access services from the public school district where the private school is located. However, federal law limits the budget available for those services.

States are allowed to go beyond the minimal federal requirements. For example, in Kansas students in private schools can still get special education services from the school district where they reside.