A Wealthy and Unhappy Nation

[Lookinagain]

Mine gets support for adhd and it's been amazing for him. He's also in the gifted program. We've also had a great experience with special services at our public school. Private schools are not required to accommodate our children's needs.

Exactly. My daughter had/has ADD as well as the learning issues. And I did investigate other than public schools and unless they were schools that were totally dedicated to these issues, the other private schools had no support. My public schools had a great program, so I was very lucky as it really changed her life.

 

[Calliecake]

Yes, this is huge. They are planning to cut the funding for 504 and IEP with devastating impacts on the children. A lot of families cannot afford expensive speech or other therapies and there's a significant shortage of specialists and very few take insurance.

@RRfromR, After reading your post, I just read an article in Forbes dated 2/13/25 stating 17 states were suing to end 504. The lawsuit states 504 is unconstitutional.

The 17 states are as follows:

Texas
Alaska
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
South Carolina
South Dakota
Utah
West Virginia

The state I live in (not listed above) has many great programs that help children immensely. Cutting these programs will greatly impact many children. So is helping children that need extra help now a bad thing? Isn’t the goal to help all children?

I’m kind of afraid anything I say regarding this will get me banned. I completely agree with both @Lookinagain and your thoughts regarding these programs.

 

[Lookinagain]

@RRfromR, After reading your post, I just read an article in Forbes dated 2/13/25 stating 17 states were suing to end 504. The lawsuit states 504 is unconstitutional.

The 17 states are as follows:

Texas
Alaska
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
South Carolina
South Dakota
Utah
West Virginia

The state I live in (not listed above) has many great programs that help children immensely. Cutting these programs will greatly impact many children. So is helping children that need extra help now a bad thing? Isn’t the goal to help all children?

I’m kind of afraid anything I say regarding this will get me banned. I completely agree with both @Lookinagain and your thoughts regarding these programs.

It would be interesting to know about their public schools.

 

[bee24]

@RRfromR, After reading your post, I just read an article in Forbes dated 2/13/25 stating 17 states were suing to end 504. The lawsuit states 504 is unconstitutional.

The 17 states are as follows:

Texas
Alaska
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
South Carolina
South Dakota
Utah
West Virginia

The state I live in (not listed above) has many great programs that help children immensely. Cutting these programs will greatly impact many children. So is helping children that need extra help now a bad thing? Isn’t the goal to help all children?

I’m kind of afraid anything I say regarding this will get me banned. I completely agree with both @Lookinagain and your thoughts regarding these programs.

I believe after some “public pushback” those states have now clarified that they do not want 504 to be considered unconstitutional… which will hopefully not disrupt the additional accommodations/accessibility provided under those plans now!
You are right though, the original language did call 504 unconstitutional and I personally love that parents/teachers/public voiced their concerns and were heard. Accessibility is so important!

 

[Calliecake]

Thank you so much for your post @bee24. I read the Forbes article from Feb 13 and got very upset and angry. I decided it would be best to drive deeper into this over the weekend. I’ve seen first hand the difference these classes can make in a child's life. The child I know is thriving and it’s all due to these wonderful programs.

 

[bee24]

@Calliecake I agree! I was very upset when I first started seeing things about 504 being unconstitutional. My understanding is they are trying to remove gender dysmorphia as a designated disability under 504…I won’t go into that as it’s prob a banned subject here lol?? But how they were writing it made all 504 unconstitutional. 504 spans so many different accessibility needs: preferential seating for a child hard of hearing, large print book or braille for someone visually impaired, more time on a test for a foster kid recently removed from a their family and struggling w the trauma, access to an elevator for a student athlete who tore an ACL and can’t use stairs…the list goes on and on and of course includes things already discussed here! I’m encouraged by the public’s response and hope that accessibility for children in school is never truly threatened (504/IEPs/IDEA).

 

[Calliecake]

@bee24, I’m thrilled about the public response regarding 504. I’d loved to be able to have important discussion regarding topics that are affecting people lives here.

In my opinion the US has a lot to be unhappy about at the moment.

 

[bee24]

@Calliecake I definitely agree with you!

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

It would be interesting to know about their public schools.

 

[Lookinagain]

Thanks. I tried to find a map like that but missed this.