House votes to ban schools requiring medication

Firstly, it is totally illegal already for schools to require medication as a condition to attend school. If and when this happens (I don’t doubt it does, but I question the actual prevalence), this should be dealt with through appropriate channels that are already open and available.
We (in my neck of the woods) do not use language such as “ADHD” or “medication” when we discuss the behaviors we see with the parents. We do discuss behaviors, parents and teachers often agree to fill out rating scales such as the SNAP IV (1 page that rates certain behaviors commonly associated with ADHD, as insignificant, borderline significant or significant) or the Achenbach which is 4 pages long and “screens” for more than just ADHD. Psychologists are trained to use these instruments. Interestingly, psychiatrists who often diagnose and treat these conditions are not always up to speed on these instruments. However, the findings of either of these instruments can be taken by the parent to their doctor for help in diagnosing.

The danger of passing laws that place a gag order on educators is that the line may be come more blurred as to what we can say. Indeed, we do have a number of behaviorally challenged youngsters in our schools.

If you have ever been the classroom teacher and had one such child in your class, you will know that if the child’s behavior is severe (and I mean SEVERE, not moderate or mild) it may not be simply a matter of being a good teacher and using appropriate teaching and behavior management techiques. It is positively exhausting to have a severely behaviorally challenged youngster in the room and try to teach simultaneously. You must maintain an exhausting vigil to remain one step ahead at all times while also teaching content and standards. You cannot ever let down your guard. If you have almost any other kind of job in the world you will observe your attention cycle through peaks and valleys in the course of the day to maintain the mental energy to do your job well. A teacher in this setting must remain constantly on hyperattention. I can hardly sustain this level of attention and energy myself.

Is medication bad? I realize it is controversial. However, why can’t we report the facts that we see, complete the rating forms and let families decide. In bombarding the public with the negative reports about how too many kids are medicated (not universally agreed upon by mental health professionals, but the way, some think ADHD is underdiagnosed), we have created a situation where most parents are very wary of medicating. In my experience even the most severe often don’t get meds. until 4th -5th grade.

Last fall a student of mine, 5th grade, started meds. This child had been evaluated in second grade. Behavior rating scales showed significant behaviors related to ADHD. The parent did not wish to pursue, we did not harrass the parent. Child completed 3rd and 4th grade. Family decided to take child to the doctor and doctor prescribed Adderall XR.

This child has learned more in 7 months than in years! This child’s IQ score on the triennial shot up to the gifted range, gaining 20 points on the performance section (verbal IQ stayed average and was the same). Indeed, I strongly believe this child could focus and attend long enough to complete the performance tasks to his/her capacity and voila, gifted!

I am so happy for this child. The family told us that they have annual passes to a popular amusement facility. This child went once on meds. and they had a great day. The next time they went, they didn’t get on a single ride…….the child could not wait in line (oh, they deliberately didn’t give the meds that day). They are absolutely convinced this child needs meds. to live up to his/her full potential and to enjoy life. I think they are right.

I also agree with the Congresswoman to voted “no” because this is a solution begging for a problem. We need to know how prevalent this problem really is. Also, this kind of press will cause a decrease in the prevalence of misinformed educators making illegal demands upon families.

There have been more than a few highly publicized cases of schools utilizing CPS to force parents to medicate their children against their wishes (and in several cases with the approval to avoid medication of their pediatricians). To make claims that this is a solution looking for a problem is ludicrous, it is happening now.

There are several degrees of coercion available under the current legal system. The most extreme are those that have occured in MI, NY, CA, and TX, where parents have been taken to court and threatened with legal action including loss of custody for continuing to not medicate their child. One case in NY invloving 14 families was thrown out on appeal (and rightfully so) because the persons bringing the charges had no medical background with which to use their opinions to overrule the family drs. who thought otherwise. The same scenario played ut differently in MI, where the families knuckled under and agreed to medicate their children rather than face loss of custody. In both cases it was school officials using CPS o force the issue.

Other coercion is not so overt, and can result in a much higher than expected rate of medication in children. A study on 5 school district in NC found that nearly 20% of the children between 7 and 10 had been medicated using stimulants (nearly all of them boys). This compares with an accepted rate of ADHD (the only legitimate reason to use stimulants in children) of 4-6%. Another study conducted in VA found over 10% of the boys in 3 counties were being medicated with stimulants, despite the fact that less than half had a professional diagnosis of ADHD.

6 states have or are in the process of passing laws to prevent schools from playing dr. and pushing medication. The most restrictive law in CT forbids the schools from even asking if the parents have considered it or have discussed it with their dr.

The law before Congress now does not forbid the schools from talking about the use of medication with the parents. It simply forbids the schools from making medication a pre-requisite to providing services.

I was criticized by the school for helping my child overcome the very behaviors that the schools would like children medicated for. They thought I was pushing him too hard. They didn’t even understand what I was doing and did not take the time to try to understand.

I pulled back from informing the school about anything we were doing. They didn’t even know what interactive metronome was and they thought vision therapy was controversial.

This is a boy that could be on meds but is not because his actual deficits were dealt with.

It just not their call to make.

I see red on this issue because I know there are alot of children just like my son out there that are put on meds at the schools urging despite the fact that there may be another way.

I see red on the issue of “pushing too hard” — I had a hyperactive gifted kid who *needed* stimulation, or she went bonkers. She had one principal who said in so many words that he wanted to “slow her down to normal”.

I would rather not see kids on heavy medication, but I’m not going to tell any parent that they cannot use it in a case of real need.

I see red on this one too.

I medicate my child but it was a considered informed decision that took us many months to arrived at - probably the most difficult parenting decision we’ve made so far. We don’t regret the decision, in fact the meds are a huge part of dd’s success.

Three years ago pre-meds, when the sp ed commitee granted us resource room under OHI (we had already secured a private reading tutor at $150/week too) the school suggested that since ‘they were doing their part, we are obliged to do ours’ meaning medication b/c ‘there was only so much they could do on their end’.

Unbenknownst to me then, I blurted out “well that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen, can you imagine how something like that will go over in today’s litigious society”. That was the last I ever heard from them about medication. To this day, I insist there is NO MENTION of dd’s medication anywhere in her school files. I may want observations from her classroom teacher but not her opinion on med use or different kinds of meds. I may discuss meds with the asst. prinicipal since her son is ADHD medicated but those are always off the record. I am very clear about all of this. They need to be involved in a way and I really do need them, but it is beyond their realm of expertise.

The publicized cases I have read about - there appeared to be a helluva lot more going on than ADHD from my layman’s perspective as well as ‘horror’ issues at those schools. ADHD has a lot of comorbidity and ADHD meds can exacerbate other undiagnosed conditions like bi-polar for example which is way out of the school’s area of expertise.

The point is you can’t legislate medical care must be excellent nor can the gov.’t make proclamations as to what the best medical treatments are. Those are qualitative subjective areas which are not easily ‘measured’ as well as illegal given our American freedoms.

My other pet peeve is that the schools can be very willing to use ADHD as an excuse for lowered expectations or an easy reason to refuse real help - causing poor kids to be caught in borderline torturous territory for their school career. In my dd’s case I have had the privilege of knowing only two experts who uniquely understood how ADHD affects learning differences and vice versa - neither happen to work at her school.

I agree. Schools pushing the medication issue is very “big brother.” We don’t allow religion in school because school is just a much to influential place. Pressuring religion even in very subtle way steals our freedom.

The push I got was very subtle in the form of a ADHD pamphlet. People who work for the shool system have to realize that such a push even done gently is really very overwhelming to a parent who often feels like they have few options.

There are many options.

…all while in an extremely vulnerable state. Think of the range of parent emotions - realizing ‘something’ is not right and mom/dad can’t ‘fix’ it without outside help, fiercely protective, seeking answers, maybe grief/acceptance upon initial diagnosis, overwhelmed and bombarded with info. - desperate to help their child.

I can’t tell you how many times I globbed onto and dwelled on an off-hand remark from the school when I felt so unsure we were making the right decisions then. I also mistakenly thought they must be experts (not necessarily true or untrue) or at least would know more than I did.

I never felt we had limited options, my concern was making the best possible decisions and support within our power given the high stakes being my precious dd.

Man, I am permanently scarred from the last few years.