Manasa Iyer threw up her arms in the air just like she did when she won silver medals at the Special Olympics World Games in Boise, Idaho, five years ago.
But this time Manasa’s victorious cheer followed an inspirational speech she gave to a packed ballroom.
Read more.
The Sonoma Developmental Center, which is fighting to remain open amid criticism that care offered at the 124-year-old facility is substandard and too expensive to maintain, this week debuted a new crisis home where a modern design is meant to complement what officials touted as cutting-edge treatment protocols.
California’s community of individuals with developmental disabilities is in crisis, but few outside that community are aware of it. That needs to change, and fast, before things get even worse.
Support for the state’s roughly 280,000 developmentally disabled individuals has declined to such a state that some are no longer receiving levels of service that are mandated federally, much less what a civilized society owes its most vulnerable members. The decline is wrenching not only for those individuals, but for their loved ones and those who help care for them and support them.
The problem is a lack of money — as it is in so many areas. But this is different in both quality and degree from, say, public employees wanting a raise.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan speaks at a press briefing at the White House. Duncan’s agency is requesting more funding to hire additional staff to address an increasing number of civil rights complaints. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS)Federal education officials are fielding an increasing number of complaints related to disability discrimination in the nation’s schools.
More than 3,900 complaints based on disability were filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights during the 2014 fiscal year, the most recent period for which statistics are available.
When 7-year-old Max Cutler uttered his first word a few months ago, it touched his mother deeply.
The word “Ho Ho” may sound meaningless to some but to her it was a break through for her son who suffers from severe autism.
For the first time, he said aloud what he wanted, a packaged cupcake.
Max attends Veva Blunt Elementary School in Visalia where a campus within a campus exists for students such as Max who have trouble communicating with the outside world.
U.S. dietary guidelines, the government’s benchmark for balanced nutrition, have long advised Americans to eat dark, leafy greens. Now, there is another way the standards could be going green.
A panel of nutrition experts recruited by the Obama administration to help craft the next set of guidelines, to be issued this year, said in long-awaited recommendations Thursday that the government should consider the environment when deciding what people should eat.
ARCA Executive Director Eileen Richey
Between March 4rth and March 12th over 400 people rallied at the state capitol to support the Lanterman 10 Coalition and save the developmental services system. As one voice, state legislators heard the outcry for rate increases, lower caseloads, and the elimination of the Annual Family Program Fee. Read more here: Senate Subcommittee Overview
The Association of Regional Center Agencies (ARCA) represents the autonomous regional centers objective to support and advance the intent and mandate of the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act. To learn about important legislative updates and current initiatives.
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