Missouri just passed a new law requiring health insurance coverage for Autism Spectrum Disorders.  In April 2009, the Missouri State Senate passed Assembly Bill 167, which requires insurance companies to provide coverage of evidence-based, medically necessary autism therapies.   The Missouri House completes the needed legislation for ASD coverage in Missouri.

In Kansas, Kate’s Law remains pending.  Kate’s Law would bring to Kansas insurance coverage for Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Insurance covering autism is mandated by 15 other states, but understanding the coverage has proven to be a challenge.  Click here for Frequently Asked Questions about each state’s covereage.

The 15 states with insurance coverage are: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

Is autism diagnosed too often as a way to access services?

This film trailer from Autistic-Like: Graham’s Story describes one family’s experience with a possible mis-diagnosis of autism  For more info, visit the film’s web site:

Kate’s Law would require health insurance to cover the diagnosis and treatment of Autism spectrum disorders.  Today, the Kansas House will vote on a motion to pull Kate’s law out of the House Insurance Committee and send it to the House floor for debate.

The motion needs 70 votes to pass.  If it passes, then a second motion will move the bill “above the line” where it can be debated and passed out of the House.

Learn how you can support this important legislation by checking the web site for the Kansas Coalition for Autism Legislation.

The popular press widely reported three test cases in vaccine court on February 12.  In those cases, the families failed to prove that autism for their children was caused by childhood vaccines.

If that’s all you read, you might think the pharmaceutical industry won forever.  Not quite, though.  Last week, the vaccine court awarded over $800K to a family with autism.  The vaccine court believed that their child’s autism (actually, PDD NOS) was caused by a measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.  Read the details by clicking this link to the Huffington Post.

Kate’s Law (formally known as Kansas Senate Bill 12) remains stalled in the Kansas Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee.  If passed, the bill would require health insurance to cover the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders in Kansas.

To read more about Kate’s Law, and how you may advocate for its passage, click the following link for the Kansas Coalition for Autism Legislation .

Gov. Palin spoke last Friday in Pittsburgh about how she proposes to assist families raising children with special needs.  She proposed

• School choice for parents and caretakers of children with special needs;
• Portability of federal and state funds to follow the child to private placements;
• Full funding of IDEA (special education).

Some voters in the disability community aren’t persuaded.  As Governor of Alaska, she cut funding for special needs education by sixty two percent.  For a criticism of Palin’s speech, see this editorial published by commondreams.org.  To see a brief excerpt of Gov. Palin’s speech in her own words, watch this video:

This week I accompanied a teen with Asperger’s into a police interrogation.  (Asperger’s is on the autism spectrum.)  He wasn’t accused of anything. He was the victim. A peer had sexually assaulted him the restroom.

Because of his Asperger’s, he could explain literally exactly what happened to him; but, he could not identify the perpetrator from a photo lineup. Of course, that’s exactly why the perpetrator chose him as a victim. He knew he could get away with it.

Children with special needs can become easy prey. They can be especially vulnerable in unsupervised settings such as the restroom, or unstructured settings such as passing periods or the cafeteria. For that reason, you could demand at an IEP meeting that your child with a disability be accompanied by a para in these risky situations.