LD OnLine News Headlines

New community efforts across the country are helping to connect more kids to essential therapies.

Twenty-five years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that parents of young children complete developmental screeners at regular visits to the pediatrician — often a crucial first step in diagnosing a child’s disability or delay. But a generation later, implementation remains spotty, with just over 36 percent of parents of young children nationally reporting having filled out a screener in the previous 12 months, according to the latest National Survey of Children’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. New York lags behind most states, with about 28 percent of parents saying they had been screened recently. Only Nevada, Florida, Arkansas and Missouri come in lower.

New research from the Harvard Graduate School of Education finds that brain differences linked to reading difficulties can be detected as early as 18 months, prompting calls for earlier intervention.

Smith: Literacy needs to become a national priority. Passage of the bipartisan Read Act can be a major step toward making that happen.

Parents, teachers and administrators have these tips to make the conference productive and help build a stronger connection between home and school.

An ADHD charity has said it has complained to media regulator Ofcom about a Channel 4 documentary that suggested the condition is a myth.

The programme, titled The Great ADHD Myth?, was broadcast on Tuesday and its host, NHS psychiatrist Dr Max Pemberton, concluded it was “a social construct, not a disorder of the brain”.

ADHD UK filed a complaint, saying: “ADHD is not a myth. It is not a social construct.”

The Royal College of Psychiatrists also warned against “invalidating the condition”.

Using long-term US data, a new study finds ADHD is not a universal entrepreneurial advantage, with outcomes shaped by gender and intelligence.

A new study from King’s Business School, which looked at whether childhood ADHD predicted whether people became self-employed business owners in adulthood, has challenged the idea that ADHD is universally linked to entrepreneurial careers.

Fewer than half of Wisconsin’s special education teachers remain in the profession after eight years, according to an April report from Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction.

On Aug. 17, DPI announced being awarded a $10.5 million federal grant that the department hopes will help address a critical shortage of special education teachers in Wisconsin. 

Barbara Van Haren, the grant proposal’s author and a DPI education development consultant, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the ongoing high levels of attrition among special education teachers is a crisis. 

Yu Yang Tian, an 18-year-old in Candiac, Que., has created an app to help people learn French. An immigrant from China who lives with dyslexia, he developed an app that uses AI to help correct writing, explain mistakes and offer personalized tools.

Dysgraphia is more than just bad handwriting.

Sean, 9, can describe a groundhog’s complex burrows in vivid detail. But ask him to write two sentences about it, and he freezes. He stalls. He erases, starts over, and stalls again. An hour later, he quits, with a hole in the middle of the paper.

This scenario plays out like Groundhog Day in countless households every evening. Parents press children like Sean to try harder. The evening inevitably ends with tears and angry words. Families are at a loss as to what to do until they stumble on the word “dysgraphia.” Can it be dysgraphia?

Most districts don’t have the systems in place to screen for the learning disability related to numbers and math, CRPE said in a report.

Why don’t people with ADHD sleep well, long, or easily? We surveyed more than 3,000 ADDitude readers to find out what keeps them up at night, and what helps to quiet their ADHD brains.

Research suggests that ADHD night owls should reset their internal clocks. Here’s how to fix circadian rhythm problems and achieve more restful sleep with ADHD.

A new medicine for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has just entered the treatment toolbox: centanafadine, a once-a-day tablet sold under the brand name Simtriyo.

It has been approved in the United States for adults and children aged six years and older but isn’t yet available in Australia.

So how does it work? How is it different to other ADHD medications? And what are the potential side effects?

Every student identified with a disability takes one of two paths — obtaining either an individualized education program (IEP) or a 504 plan — that determines the support services they receive in school.

AI is moving into the classroom at some campuses in Texas’ largest school district, which also faces state- and federal-level investigations over its changes to special education services.

The trend may be due to reduced capacity at the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, among other challenges, CEC and NASDSE say.

State education agencies saw a 46% jump in the number of written state complaints in special education during the 2025-26 school year compared to the year before, according to new survey responses from 31 states.

If your child’s teachers are patient, kind, and supportive, consider it a gift – because far too many neurodivergent students are met with criticism, frustration, or misunderstanding in the classroom.

When ADDitude asked readers if they’d ever dealt with a teacher who clearly didn’t like their child, we received hundreds of responses. And, sadly, two-thirds of caregivers reported that their child had indeed experienced this.

Here are some of their stories – and signs of the scars that lingered long after the school year ended.

Diagnoses for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have increased in many countries across all age groups, our latest review has found. We have also shown that prescriptions for ADHD treatments have seen similar increases across all age groups.

Two bills that would boost federal involvement in reading instruction passed out of a Senate committee on Thursday, signaling Congress’ continued interest in the “science of reading” movement.

One, the bipartisan READ Act, would put new requirements on existing federal literacy grants to support early screening for reading difficulties and evidence-based reading instruction, and shift some funding to states with the lowest reading scores.

Another, the 21st Century Dyslexia Act, would change how the reading disability dyslexia is classified under federal disability law, establishing dyslexia as its own category.

Lhamon and Young: Moving special education services and civil rights complaints to other federal agencies weakens protections for students.
 

The changes are the “start of a brighter future” for individuals with disabilities, Education Secretary Linda McMahon told OSEP conference attendees.

The new interagency agreement could bring disjointed policies and reduced accountability, experts told the Special Education Legislative Summit.

Seeing a psychiatrist via telehealth became easier from January 2022. That’s when Medicare-reimbursed telepsychiatry arrangements became permanent.

The idea was for these video and phone consultations to provide more flexible and sooner appointment times, without needing to travel.

But our new analysis shows what happened next.

“Ableism inevitably leads to frustration, as neurotypical people attempt to make sense of the behaviors of their partners or children with ADHD that do not match their expectations. Worst of all, ableism often causes us to view symptoms and different ways of functioning as character flaws. A partner who forgets the plan is viewed as careless. A child who needs multiple prompts to start homework is labeled as lazy. Over time, these stories quietly damage connection.”

ADHD medication does not cause later substance use problems, research shows. On the contrary, ADHD medication appears to reduce risk for severe outcomes.

Parents should monitor patterns of social media use, not just total screen time, findings suggest.

A panel of teachers shares the most effective ADHD accommodations and teaching strategies they use to help neurodivergent students find success in the classroom.

Significant cuts and changes within the U.S. Department of Education are causing worry among parents of children with ADHD and other learning differences who qualify for school services and accommodations. Here’s what you need to know about IEP law and 504 Plan protections.

Pushback grows as House lawmakers consider permanently moving some other Education Department functions to outside agencies.

New York City officials are expanding a slew of the city’s highest-demand special education programs into preschool classrooms for the first time, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday.

The district also is facing a federal civil rights investigation over its planned changes to special education services.

If there’s one trap in life that we can all fall into, it’s the feeling that we are alone in our suffering. As the old saying goes, there are no unique human experiences, no matter how much your brain would like to trick you into feeling otherwise. Even after years of researching women with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and living the life of a neurodivergent woman myself, I still fall into that trap. So it’s always comforting to be reminded that we’re not alone.

Federal teams charged with making sure states are doing right by students with disabilities appear to have visited fewer than half of the states originally scheduled for review in 2025 and 2026.

The U.S. Department of Education is planning to make changes to a federal rule that requires states and districts to measure racial disparities in special education, according to an announcement made over the Fourth of July weekend. 

In a call with disability rights advocates Thursday, officials from the U.S. Department of Education tried to ease concerns about plans to move the agency’s special education offices to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The effort seemed to fail.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Education tried to reassure disability rights advocates on a call Thursday about plans to move special education offices to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), but left them unsettled, NPR reported.

As Linda McMahon further splits up the Education Department, some parents worry about a disjointed approach to serving kids with disabilities.

While a top official says students will retain all their rights under federal law, some advocates and lawmakers call the transfer harmful and disruptive.

“When we talk about stopping medication…we need to ask, ‘What are we asking this person to give up and what supports are we using to replace it?’”

Emotionally adjusting to a diagnosis of ADHD as an adult is rife with dialectics, according to a new study published in Journal of Attention Disorders.

Researchers and clinicians say the shortage is due to limits on manufacturing and sales of the medications, and supply chain problems.

Oscar award-winning director Steven Spielberg, 79, is opening up about his favorite books. In a recent interview with book influencer Jack Edwards, the Jurassic Park director shared details on the books and authors he loves and the book he recommended to each of his seven children. He also revealed why reading can be difficult for him sometimes. 

‘I get frustrated inside the brain … my speech does not want to work,’ says man living with aphasia

Researchers and clinicians say the shortage is due to limits on manufacturing and sales of the medications, and supply chain problems.

ADHD, mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and other conditions that cause cognitive complaints (like perimenopause) can co-occur.

Find out if you can join the military with ADHD or anxiety. Learn about waiver requirements and how MEPS evaluates medical records.

A woman who was diagnosed with ADHD aged 39 says she has found her purpose in life after switching careers.

How to spot and protect yourself from workplace bullying and gaslighting as a neurodivergent employee.

Accommodations for ADHD ensure student success, but maintaining multiple 504 Plans and IEPs can lead to teacher burnout. Here’s how to streamline the process. 

A crash course on the neurotransmitters implicated in ADHD and how new medications are targeting serotonin, a historically overlooked chemical in ADHD treatment.

Multiple states are suing after the U.S. Department of Education abruptly canceled millions of dollars in grants that were supposed to go toward training special education teachers.

Some of the ADHD we’re seeing may be the product of technological advancements.

California began screening all students in kindergarten through second grade this school year to determine whether they are at risk of developing reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a landmark bill into law in 2023.

The screenings are part of a set of policies that aim to raise the number of California third graders reading at grade level — 56% of whom fell short this academic year — by reimagining how kids are taught to read. 

Four school districts now want to sue Kansas for inadequate funding of special education.

The districts formed the Kansas Public School Funding Coalition and are seeking legal counsel, they announced in a Wednesday press release. The coalition aims to secure adequate general and special education funding for every Kansas public school.

Special education and disability groups pushed back against the plan to drop certain data collections tracking racial disparities.

For the first time in more than two decades, federal officials are moving forward with plans to find out just how much schools across the nation are spending on students with disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Education is taking steps to green-light what’s known as the National Special Education Spending Study.

Double Olympic champion Jade Jones believes being diagnosed with ADHD helped her to make sense of her struggles – as well as her greatest successes.

“You can gamble on your phone. The ads are all over Instagram. It’s everywhere and it takes effort to get away from it. And when you combine the instant dopamine rush with sports, it’s different. There’s something about sports that make people feel like Gladiators.”

“I felt like a fraud because I wrote an entire book on how to support someone with ADHD yet never had the courage to raise my hand and ask the question for myself. I felt grief for all the years believing my struggles were character flaws. I felt some anger on behalf of all the women like me whole were simply… missed.”