Jonah came home from school last week and told me that some new kids in his middle school were acting very strangely. One boy was doing odd things in the hallway, and during recess, he was walking in circles, flapping his hands, and talking to himself. (Stimming.) Another girl was running up to the boys and shouting "boob" and then running away. I asked him what their aides were doing. He said that the aides were talking with each other and not noticing what was going on.

We had a little teachable moment and then moved on to homework. He forgot about it. I didn't.

In response to pressure to save money, our school district has slashed its budget for special education. Instead of having full-time trained aides, they hire local moms on a part-time basis. They don't train them. The moms come in for a couple of hours and are paid minimum wage with no benefits.  

With the little information that Jonah gave me, it seems pretty clear that those kids are on autistic spectrum. And a lot of kids are. The new estimate is that 1 in 94 kids are on the spectrum. Half of those kids are pretty mildly affected, which means that they can placed in a mainstream classroom, but they need help. They need trained aides that shadow them in the hallway and in the playground. They need to be tapped on the shoulder to pay attention to the teacher. If they talk too much in class, they need to be told to quiet down.

Fully trained aides cost money. But this isn't a frill. It's a necessity. With good guidance, these kids can become functioning members of society with jobs and families. They can work in regular classrooms without disturbing the other students and frustrating the teacher. Proper care shouldn't just go to the kids with the loudest and most litigious parents; it should be distributed to all kids.

Even as we're understanding more about the extent of disabilities in our country, we are slashing the budgets to help those affected. It's very frustrating.