Navy Hires Special Education Attorneys As Part Of Pilot Program For Families

 Frequent moves mean military families are often at a disadvantage for special education because they are regularly entering new school districts. A new program aims to level the playing field. Read More >

Military Families Take Fight For Special Education To Capitol Hill

Families of service members want lawmakers to require the military to provide legal assistance to help them get the special education services their children need. Read More ;

Families Of Kids With Special Needs Say Military Is Failing Them

Eight years after legal requirements were set in motion to "enhance and improve" support for those with special needs, families say the military has failed to follow through. Read More >

Behavior Therapy Services In Limbo For Military Families

A massive overhaul of the military's health insurance system is leaving behavior therapy services in question for children across the country. Read More >

Sesame Street App for Military Families

Developed for parents and caregivers: The app puts all of Sesame’s bilingual (English & Spanish) resources for military families’ right in your pocket! Use your mobile device to access videos, articles, storybooks, parent guides, and more to help you support your preschool and school-aged children as they encounter transitions common to military families.

Army Scaling Back Respite Care Program

A program designed to help support military families of children with special needs through regular respite care will face cutbacks starting this summer. Read More >

Special Education Often An Uphill Battle For Military Families

With frequent moves and parents who are away for work, obtaining appropriate special education services for children with disabilities in military families can be especially tough. Read More >

Enhanced Family Planning Screening for Military Families

Military families relocating to remote or OCONUS locations must participate in family member travel screening. Each service currently uses its own set of distinct travel screening forms and processes, which can create challenges for families, particularly at joint-base and sister-service installations. To address these challenges, appointed medical representatives from the four services have been working together with the Office of Special Needs, under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, to develop standardized forms to enhance the family travel screening experience for all families.
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ABA Therapy Difficult for Many Military Families to Access

Lawmakers are speaking out after a change to reimbursement rates earlier this year left some military families struggling to get needed autism therapy for their children. Read More >

Children and Youth Behavioral Military and Family Life Counselors

Everyone in a military family has to cope with deployments, relocation and the other demands of military life. But those demands may be most difficult for children, who may have to start over repeatedly in new schools, have little or no control over where they go and generally lack the coping skills of adults. Child and youth behavioral military and family life counselors understand the issues military children face and can provide support to meet their individual needs. They are licensed counselors with a master's or doctorate degree who have passed a criminal background check. Child and youth behavioral military and family life counselors play a key role in giving military children the support they may need during some of the more challenging periods of military life.  http://www.militaryonesource.mil/crisis-prevention?content_id=268679

Military Families Make Push For Increased ABA Coverage

Currently, access to applied behavior analysis is limited for kids with developmental disabilities whose parents serve in the military, but efforts are underway to change that.   http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/06/11/military-aba-coverage/19434/

Government Accounting Office Report on Disability Progams

Federal Disability Programs: More Strategic Coordination Could Help Overcome Challenges to Needed Transformation Summary: In 2003, GAO designated federal disability programs as a high-risk area because federal disability programs remained grounded in outmoded conceptsthat have not been updated to reflect the current state of science, medicine, technology, and labor market conditions. In addition, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faced management challenges, especially with their disability claims processing. Further, disability experts have expressed concerns about the level of coordination among the many federal agencies that providebenefits and services to individuals with disabilities. GAO was asked to determine: (1) what steps SSA and VA have taken to modernize theirdisability programs and (2) to what extent SSA and VA coordinate withother federal agencies that provide services to individuals withdisabilities. To do this, GAO reviewed literature, agency strategic plansand performance and accountability reports, and interviewed agency officials. SSA and VA have taken some initial steps to recognize a more modern concept of disability, but both agencies still encounter challenges in fully assessing an individual's capacity to work and in addressing claims processing problems. SSA and VA have revised some eligibility criteria to reflect medical advances and to support beneficiaries' efforts to returnto work and achieve self-sufficiency. However, their revisions to eligibility criteria fall short of fully incorporating a modern understanding of how technology and labor market changes should impacteligibility for disability benefits and return-to-work rates remain low. The low return-to-work rates may be due, in part, to the timing in which certain supports are offered to beneficiaries. However, the timing ofservices are constrained by several factors, including program design,laws, and the agencies' limited span of authority over benefits andservices offered by other agencies. Finally, although SSA and VA are taking steps to address management challenges, both agencies continue to experience delays in processing disability claims and persistent backlogs. SSA and VA disability programs partner with other federal agencies that provide services to individuals with disabilities on specific initiatives, but government wide coordination of cross-cutting programs is lacking. For example, SSA and VA have partnered with specific agencies to support employment-related services, conduct research, and improve the integrityand operation of their disability programs, among other things. While interagency partnerships may help to improve some programs, individuals with disabilities and the programs serving them continue to operate without a centralized federal strategy or a coordinating entity to ensure federal policies, services, and supports are aligned. To view this report go to: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08635.pdf

Reported Cases of PTSD in Soldiers Up 50% in 2007, According to Defense Officials

The number of U.S. service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder increased by nearly 50% from 2006 to 2007, according to Pentagon data released on Tuesday, the Washington Post reports. Nearly 40,000 soldiers who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan from 2003 to 2007 have been diagnosed by the military as having PTSD. In 2007, nearly 14,000 cases of PTSD were diagnosed by military officials, compared with more than 9,500 new cases in 2006 and 1,632 in 2003, Army data show.



According to data from the Office of the Army Surgeon General, a total of 28,365 Army soldiers have been diagnosed with PTSD, including more than 10,000 in 2007. In 2006, more than 6,800 new cases of PTSD among Army soldiers were reported. There are a total of 5,581 PTSD cases among Marine Corps service members, including 2,114 in 2007. In 2006, 1,366 new cases of PTSD among Marines were diagnosed. Cases of PTSD among Air Force and Navy soldiers did not exceed 1,000 in 2007.



According to Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, up to 30% of deployed soldiers experience PTSD symptoms. This is the first time Department of Defense officials have released PTSD data on soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials previously have said that up to 20% of soldiers showed symptoms of mental health problems. Schoomaker attributed the surge in reported cases to the 2004 launch of an electronic record system by officials, increased knowledge about PTSD, increased violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, an increase in the number of deployed troops, increased exposure of troops to combat, and longer lengths of and multiple deployment. Military officials said that the numbers represent a fraction of service members who have PTSD because the data do not include those diagnosed by Department of Veterans Affairs workers or civilian caregivers, and those who do not seek care, according to the Post (Washington Post, 5/28).



Accordingto the AP/San Francisco Chronicle, "Officials have estimated that roughly 50% of troops with mental health problems don't get treatment because they're embarrassed or fear it will hurt their careers". Schoomaker said, "We're in our infancy right now of fully knowing what the extent of this is".