Artists with developmental disabilities will be introduced into the collection of a famous museum, the Shrub Oaks school in Westchester County, N.Y., is the subject of a scathing report and more developmental disability news for the week ending May 10, 2024.
Spotlight
A partnership between an iconoclastic art studio in Oakland, Calif., Creative Growth — which began in 1974 as a place for people with developmental disabilities to make art — and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is making history.
Not only is the museum celebrating Creative Growth’s 50th anniversary with an exhibition, “Creative Growth: The House That Art Built,” but it has pledged to introduce more art by developmentally disabled people from three Bay Area organizations into its collection displays, “and consequently into the canon of modernist art history.”
This is fantastic news. Check out the whole article: At SFMOMA, Disability Artwork Makes History (New York Times)
New York
This School for Autistic Youth Can Cost $573,200 a Year. It Operates With Little Oversight, and Students Have Suffered No state agency oversees Shrub Oak in Westchester County, which enrolls a range of students with autism. As a result, this article reports, parents and staff have nowhere to report bruised students and medication mix-ups. (ProPublica)
NY state prison system breaks law by sending disabled inmates to solitary: lawsuit (Daily News)
Outside of New York
17 Years of Noncompliance: Virginia Department of Education Fails Students That is just a damn long time. (Special Education Action)
At a Massachussetts high school, these teens are redefining what it means to have a learning difference A new student club is providing a haven for neurodivergent students while educating others at the school about what it means to have various differences. (Boston Globe)
I Can’t Wait for These Stories Not to Be ‘News’
Student with disability thrives in Anne Arundel County school cafeteria internship Is it good to have more stories on people with developmental disabilities being successful at their jobs? Sure. But this one out of Maryland has an all-too typical “isn’t this amazing” tone that reeks of ableism. Let’s expect individuals with disabilities to be good employees, and let’s help those who aren’t learn how to be better. (WBAL)
Autism
Healthcare
Standards Established To Improve Health Care For Kids With Disabilities Developed by a panel of health care experts, adults with disabilities and caregivers, the plan published recently in the journal Pediatrics includes 10 statements across five key domains. (Disability Scoop)
Making Disability Rights History: HHS Announces Powerful Anti-Discrimination Protections A long-awaited final rule implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 creates a powerful tool to combat discrimination based on disability in health care and human services. (Administration for Community Living)
Parks
Sesame Place Introduces Low Sensory Days (Disability Scoop)
