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"Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success."

- Henry Ford

What is your vision for the school year? Is academic achievement at the top of the list or will this be the year your child breaks out of his social shell? Will your family grow closer or more distant as they face the challenges of another school year? Who will guide your child’s development?

A vision defines a direction towards a goal. Realizing a vision requires support from a motivated group of individuals; a team of people, who band together through adversity, acknowledge achievements and inspire motivation.

This video offers some tips for a successful school year.

Who’s on your team?

According to the United States Census Bureau, today’s generation of school-age children spends the majority of their waking hours in the care of someone other than their parents. Given the influence that teachers, coaches, mentors, and extended family members have on a child’s development the necessity for building a relationship with this group of people has never been greater. Creating a team of focused and motivated individuals who will continually support the ongoing growth of your child requires a new set of parenting skills.

5 Steps to Building Your Support Team

• Create a roster. Who will impact your child’s life this year? Begin by creating a list of the adults who

While many parents may believe that Dyslexia relates to an individual’s struggle with reading, the issue of Dyslexia can impact a child’s full development. Dyslexia symptoms include confusion with letters, numbers, reading, math, writing, and other difficulties – all of which can hinder a child’s academic progress.

Children coping with Dyslexia can face an array of adversities if their struggles are ignored. As studies demonstrate, students with Dyslexia who do not receive proper support may experience a decrease in self-esteem and a decline in positive behavior.

Thankfully, educators are finding new and innovative ways to help Dyslexic students learn at an optimal pace and level, and a rising number of schools are implementing targeted programs for support.

Dyslexia: The Signs and Struggles

Children coping with Dyslexia may reveal a wide variety of symptoms. For example, as Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal explains, children who struggle with Dyslexia often fail to fully comprehend both written material and numbers – leading to difficulties with other assignments. When these children struggle with academic tasks, they may begin to demonstrate signs of frustration, anger, or even depression.

According to the Mayo Clinic, other symptoms of Dyslexia may include the following:

• Your child may start speaking later than other kids his age.
• Your child adds new words very slowly to her vocabulary.
• Rhyming may be difficult for your child.
• Your child may have an inability to identify and recognize printed letters and words.
• Your child’s reading ability is below the standard level expected for

According to research and studies from the Centers for Disease Control, an average of 1 in 150 births results in a child who is diagnosed with autism. With this statistic, it is predicted that over 1.5 million Americans alone are potentially dealing with some form of disorder on the autism spectrum. While the cause is still unknown, autism is growing at a rate of an estimated 10-17 percent each year, as this disorder is now more prevalent and common than diabetes, pediatric cancer, and AIDS combined.

As Autism Spectrum Therapies explains, “Autism is a complex developmental disability […] (and) is considered a neurological disorder, though the specific cause is not known.” Today, medical experts and researchers can typically diagnose autism by a child’s second birthday; however, new breakthroughs are providing signs of autism in infants as early as just six months of age. As these medical breakthroughs continually advance, schools, parents, and the medical community are discovering new avenues for providing autistic children with full and inclusive support.

Public Schools and Encouraging Social Behavior

Since autism spectrum disorder is a neurological issue, each individual coping with autism expresses unique and different symptoms and indications. This condition is referred to as a “spectrum” because the degree and severity of each individual is subjectively specific. Most commonly, however, individuals suffering from autism spectrum disorder struggle with social and communicative skills, which are often most obviously realized once a child is exposed to social opportunities at school.

As Autism Spectrum

Gay Friendly Public Schools: Will New Program Ideas Decrease Violence and Tension?

According to National Public Radio’s (NPR) review of the new public school initiative to create gay-friendly public schools, the city of Chicago is instilling plans for “a new school where gay students and others wouldn't face the bullying and harassment they endure in other schools.”

As Chicago has surfaced as the focal point of this controversy, acting as one of the first cities in the country to widely support this public program shift, school and community leaders are caught in the middle of a national and heated debate.

The Background: Why Create Gay-Friendly Schools?

While Chicago is currently earning the most attention for its plan to create a gay-friendly school, cities across the country have implemented these programs in the past. Specifically, New York made the gay-friendly Harvey Milk School, while Milwaukee created the Alliance High School; both of these programs have been reported as inspirations for the up-and-coming Chicago school, which is intended to open in 2010.

As the CNN report, “Chicago May Get Gay-Friendly High School,” reveals, school and community officials in Chicago created the proposal for a gay-friendly high school so that students of all sexual preferences and identities could attend school without feeling harassed or in danger. William Greaves, Chicago’s liaison to the gay and lesbian community, is one of the advocates for the new school and is also a contributor to the school’s proposed design. According to

Affecting 8% to 10% of all school-aged children in the United States, ADHD is a common behavioral disorder that often results in a child's struggle to focus his or her attention both in and outside of school.

While all kids act disruptively at times, ADHD symptoms will persist over an extended period of time, while occurring in a variety of settings. As the Nemours Foundations indicates, ADHD impairs “a child's ability to function socially, academically, and at home." With this rising trend, schools are implementing plans to support students and families to achieve both social and academic success.

This video features psychologists from the Center for Management of ADHD at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia discussing the influence of ADHD on school performance.

Public Schools: Plans for Success with ADHD Students

• Federal Requirements and Individual Education Plans

As required by federal law, all public schools must make certain accommodations for any child struggling with a learning or developmental disability—including children diagnosed with ADHD. In some cases, a child may benefit from an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), which would require the child, parents, and teachers to work together in planned meetings to set appropriate goals, discuss strategies for success, and implement appropriate accommodations.

While these options are available, there are still steps that must be taken prior to the implementation of any IEP or education plan. According to Doctor David Rabiner, in his article "Obtaining