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For months, advocacy groups, educators, and researchers have harbored mounting concerns that the U.S. Department of Education could allow millions of dollars earmarked for special education research to lapse permanently. Now, a federal judge is stepping into the fray to demand accountability and transparency from the federal agency. U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs is…
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Many cinematic works draw inspiration from a filmmaker’s personal life, but few offer a glimpse quite as intimate, unvarnished, and deeply lived-in as Liz Sargent’s feature debut, “Take Me Home.” For Sargent, who grew up as one of seven children adopted by her parents alongside four biological children, the narrative feature-length film…
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FORT WORTH, Texas — State agencies across Texas have unveiled a comprehensive new initiative aimed at fundamentally improving access to early childhood settings for children with disabilities and developmental delays. While the collaborative roadmap has drawn praise from advocates and families alike for finally acknowledging long-standing systemic failures, experts emphasize that a strategic plan alone…
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — After finishing a shift stocking coffee beans at grocery stores around Birmingham, 27-year-old Sarah Stewart sits down in her mother’s office chair, straps on a set of virtual reality goggles, and steps into an entirely digital world. Using a specialized program created by the digital health company Floreo, Sarah selects an exercise…
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Federal health officials are rolling out a major new research effort aimed at fundamentally transforming how autism is diagnosed and treated across the United States. The ambitious program, known as Systems for Phenotypic Evaluation, Clinical Trajectories, Response, and Agency, or SPECTRA, will bring together a vast array of biological, clinical, behavioral, and real-world data alongside…
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KALAMAZOO, MI — Scott Lacey does not want to be viewed as an inspiration. He wants the world to think differently. On August 9, the Kalamazoo endurance athlete gave people a profound reason to do exactly that, stepping out of the water after becoming the first known visually impaired athlete to swim around Mackinac Island.…
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For much of her short life, Ruby Hobbs-Leffler experienced the world with an intensity that defied easy categorization. She was a bright, articulate girl with an expansive vocabulary, yet she found herself utterly unable to translate the overwhelming sensory onslaught of her daily existence into words. Bright lights, loud noises, and intolerable textures and tastes…
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FORT WORTH, Texas — State agencies in Texas have unveiled a comprehensive new initiative aimed at dramatically improving access to early childhood settings for children with disabilities and developmental delays. However, early childhood experts, parents, and policy advocates caution that while the roadmap is a promising and overdue acknowledgement of systemic failures, it must be…
