Mississippi Today
Report: Access to special education services for young children is low in Mississippi, racial disparities exist
Fewer Mississippi children participate in special education services for young children than the national average, according to a new report.
The report found that participation increases with state median income.
The National Institute for Early Education Research published a report Tuesday evaluating the state of services for children with disabilities, particularly the federal programs known as Early Intervention, for children under three, and Early Childhood Special Education, for children ages 3-5. The report uses data from the 2020-21 school year to focus on inequities in the availability of these services by race and state.
Children are often referred to these programs when they show delays or difficulties during developmental screenings performed by pediatricians or child care centers. Mississippi has historically had a low rate of developmental screenings, but now ranks 33rd nationally due to investment from a federal grant.ย Research shows intervention improves outcomes and is more effective the earlier it is delivered.
In the 2020-21 school year, 1.5% of Mississippi kids received services through the under three program, while 3.2% did nationally. For children ages 3-5, 4.4% of Mississippi kids received services compared to 5.2% nationally.
The report found a correlation between state median income and participation in these services, both of which were low for Mississippi. Experts attributed this pattern to health care access and state policy choices.
โThose families that either don’t have health care or don’t have transportation to get to health care are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to accessing early intervention programs,โ said Katy Neas, deputy assistant secretary with the U.S. Department of Education. โHaving done some work in your state, the lack of providers in places outside of Jackson is really quite profound.โ
Neas added that local Head Starts provide a high-quality experience for young children with disabilities, helping to address the gap in options.
Steve Barnett, co-director of the institute, also pointed out that some other states with low median incomes face similar challenges but have much higher enrollment, naming New Mexico and West Virginia as examples. He said these differences in state policy are one of the reasons they recommend convening state leaders to share ideas.
The report also found when children in Mississippi finish the under three program, many are not being screened to see if they are eligible for the 3 to 5-year-old program. Neas said she believes a lack of collaboration between state agencies can lead to this issue; in Mississippi, the under three program is operated by the Mississippi Department of Health, while the 3-5 program is operated by local school districts. Nearly 40% of Mississippi children in the younger program were not evaluated for the older one. About 20% of kids in the under three program were evaluated and found to be eligible for the 3-5 program. Nationally, these numbers are nearly reversed.ย
โ… If kids have the audacity to turn three at a time other than the beginning of the school year, sometimes the transition can be sub-optimal,โ said Neas.
She added that this transition is a point of focus for the U.S. Department of Education.
The report also highlights racial disparities in the children receiving services, with white children having higher rates of enrollment nationally than Black or Hispanic children, a pattern that largely holds true in Mississippi.
There are also racial differences in the disabilities students are enrolled to address. In the program for students aged 3-5, significantly more white children are enrolled for speech or language impairments than developmental delays. For Black children, there is a nearly equal distribution of kids between the two categories.
States are required to measure children who participate in these programs using three goals: positive social-emotional skills; acquisition and use of knowledge and skills; and use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs. In Mississippi, about 50% of children met these goals for the under three program, and closer to 70% of kids met them by the end of the 3 to 5-year-old program.
The report authors did not offer specific policy suggestions to address these disparities, save additional federal funding, and instead called on the federal government to convene a national commission to study the issues and share best practices among states.
On the press call, Neas emphasized struggles with adequate staffing for these programs and child care centers more broadly as an area that needs attention.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1913
Oct. 23, 1913
An NAACP branch was formed in the Seattle-Tacoma area โ one of the few branches started west of the Mississippi River.
A beautician and philanthropist, Letitia Graves served as the first president, and journalist Horace Cayton Sr. served as first vice president. He had graduated from what is now Alcorn State University and married Susie Revels, the daughter of Sen. Hiram Revels, the first Black American elected to the U.S. Senate. She worked as associate editor for the Black newspaper that he began, the Seattle Republican.
NAACP members protested President Woodrow Wilson’s new policy of segregating Black federal employees. When the racist film โThe Birth of a Nationโ emerged in 1915, NAACP members sought to stop the showing of the film in Seattle. The effort failed, but they succeeded six years later when the movie returned. This time, Graves convinced the president of the Seattle City Council to have the police chief block the showing of the film.
In the decades that followed, the Seattle branch challenged discrimination in court and saw its membership grow from 85 to 1,550 members. After protests regarding police brutality and failure to promote black officers, the city of Seattle hired its first Black police chief in 1964. In the years since, the branch has continued to remain active.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Paul Bonds โ an evolution from a dislike for coffee to coffee drinker and coffee entrepreneur importing and exporting around the globe
Paul Bonds will tell you, “growing up, I didn’t even like coffee. I’d drink it a little in college, not for the taste of it, but mainly to keep me awake.”
That all changed when Bonds had a coffee epiphany.
“I had a great cup of coffee from a roaster who used to be in business in Jackson about 15 years ago. There was a coffee tasting. I triedย an African blend and reallyย liked it. It had a light,ย fruity flavor thatย Iย reallyย enjoyed. After that I was kind of hooked and started trying different roasters around the country,” said Bonds, at his CoffeeBean Fruit Company in Flowood.ย
“After that, I started trying to roast coffee beans at home, just for myself. I thought I got pretty good at it. So now and then, my friends would be sort of my guinea pigs. I began talking to my friends about coffee this and coffee that until their eyes glazed over.”
“One of those friends asked me if I’d ever thought about going into some kind of coffee business. My immediate reaction was an emphatic no. But you know what? The idea stuck with me. So much so that I bought a roaster, nothing fancy,” He said, smiling and shaking his head at the memory. “Nothing fancy, just a simple, little cheap roaster and started roasting coffee beans in my garage.”
The BeanFruit Coffee Company name derives from the product itself. The coffee bean is actually a fruit called a coffee cherry. When ripened, they are picked from the coffee plant. Within those coffee cherries are seeds called peaberries. To the naked eye, they look like little beans.
The aromas of roasting coffee beans and brewing coffee fill the senses at the BeanFruit Coffee Company. The noise from various machinery grinding and roasting coffee beans is a fitting backdrop.
Not only is Bonds importing coffee beans from around the world, his company also ships nationally and internationally. Baristas-to-be are trained on the particular coffee brewer their business uses, coffee brewers and memorabilia is sold, and there is training on how to maintain the equipment.
“After a while, I’d take bags to the Farmer’s Market. Wouldn’t you know, I gained a following. That following grew and I started to pick up cafes and restaurants as clients, and began selling online. In 2012, I went full time. Who’d have thought, all this from a friend asking one question I couldn’t shake.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1955
Oct. 22, 1955
John Earl Reese, 16, and his cousins, Joyce Nelson, 13, and her sister Johnnie, 15, were drinking soft drinks and listening to music from a beat-up jukebox in a poster-plastered cafรฉ near Longview, Texas, when white men fired nine shots through the window, killing him and injuring his two cousins. The killing was part of a series of shootings aimed at terrorizing African Americans into giving up plans for a new school.
One black woman was praying at her bedside at her home when bullets came through the Venetian blinds and bullet fragments sprayed her face. The sheriff at the time originally blamed the attack on African Americans, but a prosecution took place after a Texas Rangers’ investigation determined that Joseph Reagan Simpson and Perry Dean Ross carried out Reese’s killing.
Simpson testified that Ross had been the one that fired into the cafรฉ, and Ross confessed to authorities, โI held the steering wheel with my left hand and laid the gun (a Mossberg .22 automatic rifle) across the left door. I was going about 85 mph at the time, and I fired nine shots into the cafรฉ.โ
District Attorney Ralph Prince urged the all-white jury to convict Ross to deter others, but the defense lawyer urged the all-white jury to โcall it a bad day and let the boy go on in life.โ
Although all-white jury convicted Ross of murder without malice, he received only a suspended sentence. Neither he nor Simpson spent any time behind bars.
In 1989, the National Civil Rights Memorial listed Reese as one of 40 martyrs of the civil rights movement. A historical marker in Texas now honors Reese.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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