Six universities maintain centers to help students, parents and teachers deal with autism-spectrum disabilities and assert their rights under existing laws. Some are better than others. The Learning Gateway bills are the product of 2000 legislation that were set up by a Commission on the Study of Children with Developmental Delays. Parents told of pediatricians who had failed to diagnose serious disorders, saying the problem would disappear as the children grew older. Other testimony indicated that pediatricians and other medical professionals may need special training in order to detect potential learning problems and other developmental delays in their young patients.
Nothing is arrayed in opposition to the legislation except indifference and time.
But those can be potent foes. St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.