Today’s WSJ detailed the obstacles and costs to school districts in educating disabled children, particularly when those children can’t make it into school; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904103404576558730329067142.html?KEYWORDS=cHRONIC+FATIGUE+SYNDROME.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or CFS, is gaining attention as diagnosis of this mystery disease climbs. At the core of such mystery is no specific origin/etiology, and the symptoms are largely self-reported. According to accounts, the common symptom to these patients is pervasive and debilitating exhaustion. This is also key to individuals stricken with Celiac Disease, Lyme, Mono, Anemia, depression, an undetected ruptured or leaking appendix, and a host of other diseases and allergies. The article is silent as to whether any of these were explored or if patients ever kept a journal of each and every thing, and prescription, they ingested.
Tax payers are skeptical and they are right to be; numerous recent reports allege that the diagnosis of Autism has become so over-used, and its incidence exaggerated, that the definition is being revised to a narrow set of behaviors to make diagnosis more reliable.
While parents of children with disabilities must be vigilant in advocating for their child, this article focused on only that struggle, giving little clue, or evidentiary support as to how this child arrived in her state, for how long, or what specialists, aside from a Special Education lawyer, were consulted to improve the quality of her life, not merely her district’s educational obligation. Without chronicling such events, the diagnosis lacks credibility and tax payer support, as indicated by the overwhelmingly negative comments it generated- reader interpretation: districts, and taxpayers are being forced to cater to students who just don’t want to be in school.