Educating Special Needs Children in Mainstream Schools

These days finding a special needs child in a mainstream school would be like finding an "Enter" key on a keyboard.

The concept of institutionalised care and education is almost a thing of the past. Though some circles still feel special needs kids and adults do not have a place in mainstream society, thankfully these groups are diminishing as the decades roll on.

The placement of Special needs kids in mainstream school has many benefits to the special needs child but also the school community as a whole. Mainstream school kids get to know the disabled child for the person inside the body, not the outward disability. This goes a long way to improving social acceptance of the special needs kids both now as a child in school and later as an adult in the community.

As a parent of a disabled child I often liken the use of Special School facilities to taking a bath without any water or taking a flight in a plane without wings.

Just like we need water to take a bath we also need a "normal" social setting to educate special needs kids about society and interacting in it. The use of Special Education facilities is like taking a mainstream school student to the desert to teach them to swim.

Deadbeat state: Illinois owes 5 Billion in unpaid bills - forcing businesses & non for profits to borrow money, cut jobs services

SPRINGFIELD — Drowning in deficits, Illinois has turned to a deliberate policy of not paying billions of dollars in bills for months at a time, creating a cycle of hardship and sacrifice for residents and businesses helping the state carry out some of the most important government tasks.

Once intended as a stop-gap, the months-long delay in paying bills has now become a regular part of the state’s budget management, forcing businesses and charity groups to borrow money, cut jobs and services and take on personal debt. Getting paid can be such a confusing process that it requires begging the state for money and sometimes has more to do with knowing the right people than being next in line.

As of early last month, the state owed on 166,000 unpaid bills worth a breathtaking $5 billion, with nearly half of that amount more than a month overdue and hundreds of bills dating back to 2010, according to an Associated Press analysis of state documents.

Illinois: Pace Suburban Bus (& Paratransit) 2012 Budget Presentation Online Webinar - Video Oct 14, 2011

Uploaded by PaceSuburbanBus on Oct 14, 2011



Public Hearing Locations, Dates and Times follow:



Dates and Locations





City of Chicago:



Monday, October 24, 2011

City of Chicago (North) Budget Public Hearing

11:00 am –1:00 pm

Sulzer Regional Library

4455 N. Lincoln

Chicago, IL 60625



Tuesday, October 25, 2011

City of Chicago (West) Budget Public Hearing

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Garfield Park Conservatory

Community Room

300 North Central Park Ave.

Chicago, Illinois 60624



Wednesday, October 26, 2011

City of Chicago (Southwest) Budget Public Hearing

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Arturo Velasquez

Westside Tech. Inst.

2800 S. Western Ave.

Chicago, IL 60608



Thursday, October 27, 2011

City of Chicago (South) Budget Public Hearing

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Olive Harvey College

Cafeteria

10001 S. Woodlawn

Chicago, IL 60628



Suburban:



Monday, October 17, 2011

Lake County Public Hearing

4:00pm - 6:00pm

Waukegan Public Library

Bradbury Room (lower level)

128 N. County Street

Waukegan, IL 60085



Monday, October 17, 2011

North Cook County Public Hearing

4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Pace Headquarters

Board Room

550 W. Algonquin Road

Arlington Heights, IL 60005



Tuesday, October 18, 2011

McHenry County Public Hearing

4:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Crystal Lake Municipal

Complex, Council Chambers

100 W. Woodstock St.

Crystal Lake, IL 60014



Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Will County Public Hearing

4:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Joliet Public Library

Meeting Rm. B (second level)

150 N. Ottawa St.

Joliet, IL 60432



Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Kane County Public Hearing

4:30 pm -- 6:30 pm

Kane County Government Center

Auditorium, Ground Floor

719 S. Batavia Ave

Geneva, IL 60134



Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Southwest Cook County Public Hearing

4:30 pm -- 6:30 pm

Oak Lawn Village Hall

Auditorium

9446 S. Raymond

Oak Lawn, IL 60453



Thursday, October 20, 2011

West Cook County Public Hearing

4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Howard Mohr Community Center

7640 Jackson Blvd.

Forest Park, IL 60130



Wednesday, October 26, 2011

DuPage County Public Hearing

4:30 pm – 6:30 pm

DuPage County Government Center

Auditorium

421 N. County Farm Rd.

Wheaton, IL 60187



Thursday, October 27, 2011

South Cook County Public Hearing

4:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Homewood Village Hall

Board Room

2020 Chestnut

Homewood, IL 60430



If you have any questions, please contact Pace Customer Services at (847) 364-7223 "Option 3" (voice) or 847-364-5093 (TTY)



For more on Pace Suburban Bus visit: http://www.pacebus.com/

Letters on Closing Illinois State Institutions - shared by The Arc : Oct 13, 2011

There are a number of Letters to the Editor in the Chicago Tribune today reacting to the Governor’s call to close Mabley and Jacksonville.



Community care for the disabled



Congratulations on your great Sept. 30 editorial “Moving to community care; State-run centers for the developmentally disabled are finally on the way out.”



State institutions for people with developmental disabilities that have an annual cost per resident of $181,700 a year are expenditures that the state can no longer afford.



Small, more normalized community group homes can serve almost anyone presently residing in the institutions for an average of half the money Illinois is now spending on those outmoded facilities.



Let’s start with the Jacksonville and Mabley Centers, as you suggested, and then let’s finish the job over the next few years by downsizing and closing the other six relics of outdated warehousing of people with disabilities.



— Don Moss, executive director, United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois, Springfield



State-run centers



I hope that state-run centers for the developmentally disabled are not on their way out.



There is no such thing as “one size fits all.”



Yes there should be less restrictive settings available for those who can live and flourish in those settings.



Not all can.



My daughter has lived at Shapiro Developmental Center for 26 years. Some of the staff have been there longer. She has thrived there. She needs a much more structured setting than a group home could give her and Shapiro gives her that. Members of the staff truly care about the residents they watch over and should be given salutes and not be called “entrenched union” workers.



Yes, care there might be more expensive than in a group home; but just as those who need that setting should have it, so should those who need the other setting have it as well.



— Nancie Blatt, Highland Park



Community support



The Chicago Tribune underscores the point that closing institutions for people with disabilities should not be guided by politics or the budget.



The decision should be guided by the needs, the rights and the quality of life of people with disabilities.



For decades, the disability community has organized to compel Illinois to implement the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court Olmstead ruling, which give people with disabilities the right to receive supports in the most integrated setting. Yet, Illinois lags far behind the rest of the country, institutionalizing people with disabilities at a rate much higher than the rest of the country, even though institutions typically cost more money and many people currently institutionalized would rather receive supports in their own homes.



Disability advocates interpret Gov. Pat Quinn’s closure announcement as an opportunity to decrease Illinois’ reliance on institutions.



But in order for the transition to community care to be successful, Illinois must transfer resources from the institutions that will be closed into the community.



— Gary Arnold, Access Living, Chicago



Plans for transition



The editorial on “Moving to community care” for people with developmental disabilities is right. People with disabilities can and should be supported in their communities. My adult son is on the autism spectrum and has been living in an apartment successfully for four years with community supports. He has gained independent living skills that many people would not have predicted.



The community system mentioned can better serve the nearly 200 residents of the two institutions to be closed. For a responsible transition, the governor and legislators must see that the money saved follows those individuals into the community for group homes and other supportive services. Planning for the transitions must be based on the needs of the individuals.



Research surveys of parents of formerly institutionalized individuals report that in the community, their loved ones changed for the better in a number of ways: being more communicative, independent, responsible and happier; showing positive behavioral changes; and gaining daily living skills.



Both chambers of the Illinois Legislature have adopted a resolution calling for a plan to enhance and expand access to quality community services and supports for people with developmental disabilities. Those community services are woefully underfunded in Illinois. Closing two institutions presents both an opportunity and a responsibility.



Our elected officials have the responsibility to provide appropriate funding for Illinois citizens with developmental disabilities.



— Bonnie Dohogne, Evanston, member, Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities



Tony Paulauski

Executive Director

The Arc of Illinois



# Thank You Tony for sharing....