WEEK IN REVIEW

NewNASETPublications and Articles of Interest in Special Education and Disabilities That Were Reported This Week

December 27, 2013 - Vol 9, Issue 51

New This Week on NASET

Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy Not Linked to Autism

Despite some concerns to the contrary, children whose moms used antidepressants during pregnancy do not appear to be at increased risk of autism, a large new Danish study suggests. The results, published Dec. 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine, offer some reassurance, experts said. There have been some hints that antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) could be linked to autism. SSRIs are the "first-line" drug against depression, and include medications such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) and paroxetine (Paxil). To read more,click here

Dogs May Guard Babies Against Asthma, Allergies

Researchers say they've discovered why infants who live in homes with a dog are less likely to develop asthma and allergies later in childhood. The team conducted experiments with mice and found that exposing them to dust from homes where dogs live triggered changes in the community of microbes that live in the infant's gut and reduced immune system response to common allergens. The scientists also identified a specific species of gut bacteria that's crucial in protecting the airways against allergens and viruses that cause respiratory infections, according to the study published online Dec. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To read more,click here

Advocates Alarmed By 'Backtracking' On Teacher Standards

Disability advocates are protesting a move by the U.S. Department of Education that they say could leave students in the hands of poor-quality teachers. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan this week, a coalition of almost 100 civil rights and disability advocacy groups including the Council for Exceptional Children, The Arc and the National Down Syndrome Society, among others, blasted federal education officials for what they called "apparent backtracking" on measures to ensure that all children have access to good-quality teachers. To read more,click here

Calif. High Court Says Districts Are Responsible for Services to Jailed Youths

Young adults incarcerated in county jail who are eligible for special education services are the responsibility of the school district where their parents reside, said the California Supreme Court ina rulingreleased earlier this month. There was no dispute that the student at the center of the case, Michael Garcia, now 23 and serving a prison sentence, was qualified to receive special education services, wrote Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye. At question, however, was what agency should be responsible for those services once Garcia transferred from a juvenile detention facility to the county jail when he turned 18. State law makes it clear what entity is responsible for youths in juvenile facilities, but was silent on responsibility for those in jail. Garcia had fallen into a gap in the law experienced by perhaps hundreds of young adults in county jail, according to anarticle on Garcia's situationwritten by the California-based Center for Investigative Reporting. To read more,click here

Discovery of 'Teen Gene' Could Hold Promise for Combating Severe Mental Illnesses

As many parents of mentally ill adults will confirm anecdotally, the first symptoms of "something not quite right" with their children begin to appear during the teen years. It is known that during this teenaged phase of brain development, adolescents are particularly vulnerable to psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and drug addiction.Researchers at the Douglas Institute Research Centre, affiliated with McGill University, have isolated a gene, DCC, which is responsible for dopamine connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex during adolescence. Working with mice models, they have shown that dysfunction of this gene during adolescence has behavioral consequences which carry into adulthood. To read more,click here

High School Task Force Helping Kids Return to Class

After seeing an increase in mental health-related hospitalizations last year, Highland Park High School convened a new task force aimed at helping students return to class. Citing privacy concerns, Township High School District 113 officials declined to give the number of mental health-related hospital visits - which include both suicide attempts and drug-related hospitalizations - or say how much of an increase it represented over the previous year. They did say more students have been regularly accessing the school's mental health services in recent years. Generally, students seem more prone to depression or anxiety because of increasingly stringent college admissions expectations, lingering economic struggles from the recession and the emergence of social media, said Alesia Margetis, chairwoman of the school's counseling department. And while it's a good thing that students are using the support available to them, the uptick points to a broader question that extends well beyond Highland Park: Why? To read more,click here

NY Law Expands Oversight of Preschool Special Education

New York will increase oversight of special education programs for preschoolers with disabilities to audit all contract providers statewide, after limited audits found widespread fraud and abuse in several programs. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the new law authorizing the state comptroller to audit all of the independently run programs at least once in the next five years. The measure also establishes new reporting requirements for committees that place children in programs and for providers, while authorizing a study of reimbursement changes. To read more,click here

TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Will Stem Cell Therapy Help Cure Spinal Cord Injury?

A systematic survey of the scientific literature shows that stem cell therapy can have a statistically significant impact on animal models of spinal cord injury, and points the way for future studies.Spinal cord injuries are mostly caused by trauma, often incurred in road traffic or sporting incidents, often with devastating and irreversible consequences, and unfortunately having a relatively high prevalence (250,000 patients in the USA; 80% of cases are male). High-profile campaigners like the late actor Christopher Reeve, himself a victim of sports-related spinal cord injury, have placed high hopes in stem cell transplantation. But how likely is it to work? To read more,click here

Autism Hits Somali Kids Harder, Study Finds

Autism might not be any more prevalent among Somali-heritage children in Minneapolis than it is among white children in the city, but the severity of the developmental disorder appears harsher in this minority group. In a much-anticipated report released last Monday, University of Minnesota researchers found statistically similar rates of autism symptoms among 7- to 9-year-olds in Minneapolis, regardless of whether they were Somali or white. But all of the Somali-heritage children with autism also had related intellectual disability - defined as scoring 70 or less on IQ tests - compared with a third of children with autism in the study overall. To read more,click here

HIV Cured In Mice? German Scientists Use Stem Cells To Cut Out Virus With 'Molecular Scissors'

Scientists from Germany's Dresden University of Technology have discovered a potential treatment method that not only delayed the growth of HIV cells in laboratory mice, but fully cured some of the subjects, according to a new studypublished in PLoS Pathogens. The process utilizes, what researchers call, "molecular scissors." These scissors (essentially an HIV-cutting enzyme, known as tre-recombinase) help weed out the virus from infected cells after scientists have injected it into the host with a combination of genetically altered stem cells. This process is known as somatic genetic therapy, and it's one the research team claims could break new ground in the search for a robust, effective cure for one of the world's deadliest viruses. To read more,click here

Children With Autism Benefit from Peer Solicitation

Peer solicitation -- a child inviting another to play -- can improve reciprocal social interaction among children with autism, according to a Vanderbilt University study released today in theJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.Researchers studied playground interactions between children with autism and typically developing peers and found the two groups play similarly when engaged in independent play with kids they just met. While the children with autism initiated and engaged in less play overall than typically developing children, the researchers found that other children can facilitate and increase interactions by simple requests. These findings highlight the pivotal role that peers have in social interaction, noting that it only takes a single child to prompt other children -- with or without autism -- to interact. To read more,click here

Schools Allegedly Using Emergency Rooms For Timeout

A group of parents are suing after they say their children with disabilities were repeatedly sent from school to hospital emergency rooms in response to tantrums and other behavior issues. The parents of six New York City students are suing the city and the local Department of Education alleging that schools are calling ambulances to transport children to hospitals because they don't have proper procedures or staff in place to address the situations. One student referred to as J.H. in court papers, now age 6, was sent to the hospital by ambulance against his mother's wishes on numerous occasions including one instance when school staff said he was "not listening" and "refused to sit on a rug," according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New York last week. The child's mother says her son is now disinterested in going to school and afraid of police and the hospital. To read more,click here

Insulin Pill Is Breakthrough In Diabetes Treatment, Provides New Way For Body To Lower Blood Glucose

Scientists have attempted to create a pill form of insulin treatment since the 1930s, so diabetes patients would be spared the pain of jabbing themselves with a needle every day. But in the past, such pills were deemed physically impossible - "left for dead because as a protein composed of amino acids, insulin is destroyed by enzymes in the digestive system before it can do any good," Bill Berkrot ofReuterswrites. According to a new study published in the ACS journalBiomacromolecules, however, a team of researchers believe an insulin pill can be possible. They have found a new way to create a pill that digests properly in the stomach and is absorbed into the bloodstream, to lower the patient's blood glucose, remove the pain of needles, and increase the likelihood that patients will take their medicine when they should.  To read more,click here

Bad Night's Sleep May Raise Blood Pressure in Kids

Kids who don't get enough sleep at night may experience a slight spike in their blood pressure the next day even if they are not overweight or obese, a new study suggests. The research included 143 kids aged 10 to 18 who spent one night in a sleep lab for observation. They also wore a 24-hour blood pressure monitor and kept a seven-day sleep diary. The participants were all normal weight. None had significant sleep apnea -- a condition characterized by disrupted breathing during sleep. The sleep disorder has been linked to high blood pressure. To read more,click here

Settlement for Statewide Class Action Approved by Court

"Like an apple seed, a kid can grow if he doesn't get put in a box," said Phillip Smith, one of the 10 youth who filed T.R. et al. v. Quigley et al., a class action lawsuit calling for reform of Washington's mental health system for children. Earlier today, Smith and other youth attended a Fairness Hearing where U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly approved an agreement obligating Washington's Department of Social and Health Services and Health Care Authority to develop and provide intensive, individualized mental health services to Medicaid-­-eligible young people in their homes or communities. "Treating children at home whenever possible," said Patrick Gardner, an attorney with Young Minds Advocacy Project, "is more humane, less costly, and more effective than institutionalization." Under the agreement the state will establish a new program and approach for delivering mental health services called Wraparound with Intensive Services or "WISe."To read more,click here

Boy with Autism Can Keep 'Therapy Chickens'

It's official: The family of a toddler with autism who has blossomed thanks to his interaction with chickens will get to keep the birds. The City Council of DeBary, Fla., unanimously approved a resolution on Wednesday evening that allows the parents of 3-year-old J.J. Hart to raise the three hens in their backyard as a reasonable accommodation under the Federal and Florida Fair Housing Acts. The resolution notes that "the chickens are primarily utilized for the purpose of enhancing the child's life." "J.J. won... I'm glad," DeBary Mayor Bob Garcia, who knows the Hart family well and has been a vocal supporter of their quest to keep the hens, told TODAY Moms. "Maybe this will take the smudge off the city of DeBary that we don't care about people with disabilities, and we can get back to the norm of how great the city really is." To read more,click here

Proposed Budget Deal Seen As 'Positive Step' for Special Education Aid

The bipartisan budget accord reached by congressional negotiators to roll back part of the federal sequestration cuts over the next two fiscal years is a "positive step," said one special education advocate, but it's still important to keep pressure on lawmakers to ensure adequate federal funding for special education. Kim Hymes, the senior director for policy and advocacy services for the Council for Exceptional Children in Arlington, Va., said the deal forged between U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, is "encouraging." To read more,click here

Raising Access Questions, Many Psychiatrists Demand Cash

Psychiatrists, who are often relied on by individuals with developmental disabilities, are less likely than other doctors to accept insurance, a new study finds. Slightly more than half of psychiatrists said they accepted private insurance in 2009-2010. A similar number took Medicare but even less - 43 percent - accepted Medicaid. The findings come from an analysis of a nationally-representative survey of doctors that's conducted annually by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics. Each year about 1,250 doctors are polled, some 5.5 percent of whom are psychiatrists. To read more,click here

Honor Society for Special Education Teachers

Anti-Epilepsy Drugs Can Cause Inflammation

Physicians at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have been investigating if established anti-epilepsy drugs have anti-inflammatory or pro-inflammatory properties -- an effect for which these pharmaceutical agents are not usually tested. One of the substances tested caused stronger inflammations, while another one inhibited them. As inflammatory reactions in the brain may be the underlying cause for epileptic disorders, it is vital to take the trigger for the disorder under consideration when selecting drugs for treatment, as the researchers concluded. They published their report in the journal Epilepsia. To read more,click here