New Health Care Act Won’t Cover Autism Therapy, Education Week On Special Education Blog

Under the federal law, most health insurance plans will be required to cover 10 so-called “essential health benefits” starting next year, one of which is “mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment.”

Autism advocates urged regulators to include a requirement that applied behavioral analysis, or ABA therapy, be covered in rules governing what exactly qualified as a “behavioral health treatment,” but a final rule issued this week makes no mention of the treatment.

Bill Sealing Washington State Juvenile Records Moves Closer to Law, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

The Washington state House of Representatives unanimously passed a proposal Wednesday that would effectively seal most juvenile records from public view.

House Bill 1651 reverses an almost four-decades-old state law that keeps most of Washington’s juvenile records open. Exceptions, however, are included for individuals found guilty of some sex offenses, arson and serious violent offenses, the Tacoma News Tribunes reported.

Several of the Rosenberg Scholars attend the Center for Public Policy Priorities Kids Count briefing yesterday at the United Way.

CPPP and Kids Count have a wealth of data on children in Texas and across the nation.  You can view Texas statistics county by county or see how Texas compares to other states.  The uplifting news was that organizations like CPPP and Kids Count have put a lot of time an effort into collecting this data so that we can get the true, hard facts about the state of children in Texas.  The not so exciting news is that children in Texas are not doing so well.  According to Frances Deviney, the director of Texas Kids Count, Texas children account for half of the population growth of children in the United States between 2010 and 2011.  1 out of 6 Texas children live in poverty.   We have the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation and to top it off, we also have the highest rate of uninsured parents in the nation.  These startling statistics are something for us to think about as we approach the coming year in the Center for Children Law and Policy and hope to work towards solutions.