Alarming Statistics

"Let's raise children who won't have to recover from their childhoods."

— Pam Leo

The data shared in this chapter shows that the rate of learning and physical and mental health based diagnoses is, in fact, increasing. Not only is this distressing for the children and parents who are affected, but the rising rate of these issues strains every classroom and the entire school system.

As we shared in our introduction, we have seen significant changes in our schools and student performance. According to U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek, our own local Pennsylvania schools are ranked as some of the most excellent schools in the country. However, despite that ranking, amazing programming, systematic and multisensory instruction, excellent support services, and high standards and expectations for all students, the rate of children receiving special education services has never been higher.

Soon we will share some statistics on the rising rates of many diagnoses impacting children, but first we wanted to address a popular argument made that some things only seem worse because we are simply more knowledgeable, more aware, or because better diagnostic tools are now available. While this may be the case in some instances, we don't believe that to be so with most issues that we see impacting children today. For example, the incidence of anaphylactic food allergies is higher than ever before. Thirty years ago it was rare for there to be multiple EpiPens® in a nurse's office, and bags of EpiPens® didn't go on field trips with kids. It is highly unlikely that school personnel, or doctors for that matter, simply overlooked or could not identify children going into anaphylactic shock — there simply just weren't as many children affected by these severe allergies.

Back in the early 1990s, in one particular school district, there was an increase in the rate of students who were being identified for special education in the category of "specific reading disability." The administration and the teachers knew, per educational statistics, that no more than 4 percent of the student population should require special education. If more than 4 percent of the student population required special education, then the school should look at the general education programs, because something must be faulty in curriculum or instruction. It was decided that a different reading program should be taught to all primary students, and following the implementation of the new reading program the number of students being diagnosed with that specific reading disability began to decrease. That is what happens when you address the root cause of a problem. When rising rates of disability are due to poor programming or instruction, you fix the source of the problem, and you see improvement. We wish we could say that the percentage of students receiving special education has remained lower, but it hasn't. For example, in our state of Pennsylvania the rate has quadrupled, and is now at 15.9 percent.

The big question becomes, why? We feel that despite excellent educational programming more and more children are having learning, emotional, and neurological challenges that don't fit into any particular category, and their challenges are becoming more complex. Ask any daycare worker, educator (preschool to college), nurse, therapist, or anyone who has worked with children for more than 20 years; something is different. The needs are greater and not so clear-cut. Some of the needs are so great that school districts and/or local agencies assign personal care assistants or behavior specialists to children who need continuous adult support throughout the school day. In our home state of Pennsylvania alone, this greater need is reflected in the education budget for the 2017–2018 school year. The general education budget rose by 1.7 percent over the previous year, yet the special education budget increased by 2.3 percent over the previous year. Considering that the number of students receiving special education is drastically less than the number of students in the general education population, as in 16 percent to 84 percent, it is eye-opening that the budget costs for special education are escalating at a rate greater than that for the general education population.

Undoubtedly, there is a relationship between children's physical, mental, and neurological health and their performance at school. We wanted to know if our more personal and local observation that children seemed to be struggling with more issues was backed by national trends and data. The data we uncovered substantiates that children across the country are experiencing greater physical, mental, and cognitive challenges.

Physical Health

Allergies

Food allergies are at an all-time high. They increased over 400 percent from 1997 to 2007, and fatal allergies are more common than ever before.

Asthma

From 1980 to 2000, the number of doctor visits for asthma nearly tripled, from 6 million annually to 17.3 million. Asthma-related deaths have increased by 56 percent (2007), and now more than 9 million American kids younger than age 18 have asthma. In 2007, asthma medical care costs were $11.5 billion annually. Ten years later, in 2017, the group Documenting Hope reports that asthma costs the United States $56 billion a year.

Cancer

According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer is the leading cause of death by disease past infancy. Over 10,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and there has been a 0.06 percent increase in the rate of cancer each year for the last 35 years. One in every 330 children will be diagnosed with cancer.

Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is the kind of diabetes that most doctors and researchers say children are born with and was once considered rare. The rate of type 1 diabetes has been increasing by 30 percent per decade.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for the majority of diagnosed cases and is usually associated with older age, obesity, family history, physical inactivity, and race or ethnicity. It can be prevented and does respond to treatment. Until recently, type 2 diabetes was rare in people younger than 30 years. In 1990, the rate of type 2 diabetes began to surge from the 4 percent where it had held steady for decades. The leading cause of type 2 diabetes in children is obesity. Researchers from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study shared that the rate of Type II diabetes in 10–19 years olds rose 21 percent from 2001 to 2009.

Obesity

When comparing the...