By ALEX SMITH
Heartland Health Monitor

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Just after picking her son Raoul up from day care, Wendy Santillan serves him milk and cookies. Raoul, a 3-year-old with a crew cut and big brown eyes, happily devours his snack. But Wendy says she noticed early on some unusual behavior in her son.
“When he was 18 months, he starts to play with the toys in a different way,” she said. “He used to pass the toy (along) the corner of his eye, and that wasn’t normal at all to me.”

As Raoul grew older, he showed limited use of language. He wouldn’t point to objects. He became increasingly isolated. And in what doctors call self-stimulatory behavior, he still rubbed toys across his face.

In February, Raoul was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder – among the one of every 68 children in the United States with the syndrome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I was very worried because you, as a parent, never want your kid to be different,” Santillan said.

Wendy came to the United States from Mexico about eight years ago. She now works as a babysitter and lives in a mobile home in Kansas City, Kan. She says that when Raoul was diagnosed, she tried to do all she could to help him but had trouble knowing where to begin.

“I speak English, but it’s not my first language,” she said, “and it’s hard for me to understand, especially clinical words. And I was trying to find some information in Spanish, and you cannot find it.”

Misdiagnosing the disorder

For many Hispanic parents, getting help for their autistic children is a challenge. And that often starts with the failure to identify the disorder in the first place, said Jason Travers, an assistant professor in the special education department at the University of Kansas.

In an article in the Journal of Special Education, Travers demonstrates that Hispanic and black children are diagnosed with autism at lower rates than white children. That, he says, doesn’t make sense.

“We shouldn’t have this disparity because autism is a disability that, according to most of our evidence, affects people regardless of race or ethnicity and socioeconomic status,” Travers said.
Travers, then a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and his fellow researchers examined the number of students across the country diagnosed with autism from 2000 to 2007 – whether the diagnosis was made by a doctor or by the schools themselves.

This was a time when autism diagnoses were soaring – for white students. But in just about every state for which data were available, that wasn’t the case for Latino or black students. Travers believes those children were misdiagnosed.

“The child might instead be identified as having an emotional or behavioral disorder or a learning disability or an intellectual disability,” he said. “The child might be identified as having a health impairment.”

Travers said these kids often receive a vague diagnosis of “adjustment disorder.”

Diminishing prospects

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, schools are required to provide special services for children with autism. But when students are not identified as being autistic, they miss out on crucial early help. And without that help, their long-term prospects diminish.

“They’re less likely to be gainfully employed and contribute to the tax base,” Travers said. “They’re more likely to live with their parents and be reliant on social services. They’re less likely to have a satisfactory quality of life.”

Travers said the reason for these disparities is unclear. It may be lack of access to doctors. It may be a cultural phenomenon. Some parents may not have the knowledge, confidence or time to advocate for their children. And school themselves may be an issue. Travers said there seem to be significant differences in how schools recognize the disorder.

“Some schools are ready and willing to accept an outside evaluation, a clinical diagnosis, and others will refuse and resist that outside evaluation and instead prefer to conduct their own,” he said.

This is not the first time disparities in identifying autism have been discovered. David Mandell, an associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, published an article exploring the problem in 2002, and he’s been involved with several influential studies since then. But he said Travers’ work is a big step forward in understanding what’s happening.

“It is truly a measure of the extent to which we are serving our most vulnerable children,” Mandell said. “And it suggests that we are underperforming and that we have a long way to go to improve care.”

A ‘call to arms’

Most of what’s known about autism disparities comes from health data or projections based on sample groups. By looking at individual numbers from individual schools, Travers’ study underscores how Hispanic and black students are missing out on services to which they are legally entitled.

Mandell hopes the new findings will serve as a call to arms.

“For a long time, advocacy around autism has really been led by very well-meaning, very effective, relatively wealthy or privileged individuals. And I think that this suggests an urgent need to engage other families in this battle to obtain appropriate care for children with autism,” he said.

After Raoul finishes his snack, Wendy Santillan’s son grabs his mother’s smart phone. Wendy was lucky; she found help for Raoul through Oasis, a KU training program for parents of autistic children geared toward families living in rural or remote areas.

Raoul is doing well. Defying stereotypical autism behavior, he smiles and seems to enjoy playing with his mother. But Wendy said she gets nervous thinking about his future and what will happen when he starts grade school.

“I don’t know what’s coming next, you know?” she said. “I don’t know if there’s public resources or if I’m going to have to put him in private. I don’t know. I have no idea what’s next. And it’s a worry. Of course it’s a worry, as a parent.”

Wendy still encounters hostility from some Hispanic parents when she suggests their children may have symptoms of autism. So she’s not only doing all she can to educate herself about the disorder, she’s working to educate other families in her community as well.

Alex Smith is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

TOM HAYS, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Big-city police departments and union leaders around the country are warning the rank and file to wear bulletproof vests and avoid making inflammatory posts on social media after a gunman ambushed and killed two New York City officers.

The slayings of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on Saturday heightened fears about the safety of law enforcement officials nationwide, though there is no evidence any threats are imminent. The gunman, Ismaaiyl (IHSH’-mayl) Brinsley, had vowed online to put “wings on pigs” as retaliation for the slayings of black men at the hands of white police.

Investigators are trying to determine if Brinsley had participated in any protests over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner or simply latched onto the cause for the final act in a violent rampage.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped charges against two men accused of raping two women in a University of Kansas residence hall during homecoming weekend.

The Douglas County prosecutor’s office said in a written statement that evidence initially suggested a crime occurred. But the statement said there was no longer sufficient evidence to proceed after more people were interviewed and cell phone and medical records were reviewed.

One former suspect is from Lawrence and the other from Olathe. Police said one of the men is a KU student.

Court documents had said the 21-year-old men knew the victims and had sex with them without consent. The charges had stated that that the victims were incapable of giving consent because of either mental deficiency or the effect of alcohol or drugs.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Officials are preparing for the first ever mail-ballot election in Douglas County.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the election will determine the level of funding Lawrence schools will receive. School officials are seeking to recoup about $1.4 million of funding by keeping the local option budget at its current level.

A local option budget represents funding that is raised by local property taxes for school districts. The size of a district’s local option budget can be no larger than 33 percent of its general operating fund, which in Lawrence’s case is about $72.2 million.

At a cost of $100,000, the Lawrence district will mail the ballots to registered voters Jan. 7. School officials are hoping residents don’t mistake the mail-in ballots for junk mail.

CIMARRON – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 2 p.m. on Sunday in Gray County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Buick Park Avenue driven by Mandila L. Del, 22, Dodge City, was eastbound on U.S. 50 one mile west of Cimarron. The vehicle went left of center.

A westbound 2014 Dodge Ram driven by Johnny M. Gonzalez, 42, Dodge City, attempted an evasive maneuver and collided with the Buick.

A passenger in the Buick Peter Ayun, 34, Dodge City, was transported to Western Plains Medical Center. He was not wearing a seat belt according to the KHP.

No other injuries were reported.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas hasn’t decided whether to join a lawsuit filed by other states against Colorado over its legalization of marijuana even though the two states share a border.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Rapp said Friday that Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has been considering legal action against Colorado for months.

But she said in an email that his office is still weighing its options.

Nebraska and Oklahoma filed a lawsuit Thursday with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to declare Colorado’s legalization of marijuana unconstitutional. They argue it’s a public safety issue.

They’re seeking to prevent Colorado from enforcing an initiative approved by voters in 2012 to legalize marijuana despite federal laws against it.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts has finished a two-day tour of Iraq and says he’s seeing signs of progress in the fight there against Islamic State militants.

Roberts said Sunday that he left Thursday for his tour of Kuwait and Iraq “expecting the worst.” He went to visit American troops in advisory and training roles, including about 400 from the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, headquartered at Fort Riley.

The Republican senator told The Associated Press that he believes the situation in Iraq has changed dramatically since the summer, when the Islamic State group captured control of parts of northern and western Iraq.

He met Saturday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and said al-Abadi has improved his military’s leadership and worked to unify Islamic groups in the past 100 days.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former Johnson County physician who killed two of her children in an arson fire wants a new sentencing hearing.

The Kansas City Star reports that Debora Green argues that her life sentence with no chance of parole for 40 years is unconstitutional. Green, now 63, was found guilty of starting the 1995 fire that engulfed her Prairie Village home.

A number of Kansas inmates are seeking to be resentenced after a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found that the kind of sentence Green received must be considered by a jury. Green’s sentence was imposed solely by a judge.

Since the ruling, the Kansas Supreme Court has reversed several murder sentences that were decided by judges, not juries.

A hearing on Green’s motion is scheduled for Jan. 22.

OGDEN, Kan. (AP) — Police are investigating a death at a shooting range in Kansas.

The Manhattan Mercury reports that police and other emergency personnel responded Saturday night to a call at Ogden’s Best Guns and Gun Range. Witnesses said there was a gun-related incident inside the gun range area.

Riley County Police Department spokesman Matthew Droge says there wasn’t a robbery and that the public wasn’t in danger. No other details were immediately available.

WASHINGTON (AP) — It turns out this Congress did not produce the fewest laws since the days of Harry Truman. But it was pretty darn close.

Thanks to a late flurry of bill signings by President Barack Obama, the perpetually gridlocked Congress that just adjourned has had 286 bills enacted into law during its two years of work.

That’s according to congressional records. The number includes 51 that the White House says Obama signed Thursday.

The 286 laws barely exceed the 283 enacted by the previous Congress.

But both totals are the lowest in congressional records dating to the 1940s.

And the numbers pale compared to what Truman called the “do-nothing Congress” of 1947 and 1948. It saw more than 900 measures enacted.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The city of Wichita plans to lobby the state Legislature next year to allow people in the country illegally to receive a driver’s permit.

The permits could not be used for airport security or as identification to vote. But they could be used to obtain car insurance.

The Wichita City Council voted Tuesday to include the measure as part of its agenda for the upcoming legislative session.

The Wichita Eagle reports supporters say the permits would make it easier for immigrants to find work and would protect the public from being in accidents with people who don’t have insurance.

Rep. Ponka-We Victors, a Democrat from Wichita, introduced a similar bill last session, but it didn’t get a hearing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP is calling on supporters to buy a ticket to the movie “The Interview” if theater owners reverse their decision not to show the film amid threats of retaliation for its comedic take on assassinating North Korea’s leader.

The Republican Party chairman, Reince Priebus (ryns PREE’-bus), says in a letter to theater chain executives that he’s concerned that a foreign regime would be allowed to dictate the movies Americans can and cannot watch.

Noting that Hollywood and the GOP have had their differences, Priebus says the situation with “The Interview” is about freedom and free enterprise.

Priebus says he will ask Republican supporters to buy tickets “to show North Korea we cannot be bullied into giving up our freedom,” and suggests part of the proceeds go to military charities.