1. Task force to address learning disabilities
Denise Jamison 11:49 a.m. CDT October 1, 2016
The Community Learning Enhancement Institute (CLEI) Task Force, initiated by the Escambia Juvenile Justice
Council in 2014, would like to make people in our community aware of October being the month for Learning
Disabilities: dyslexia (reading), dyscalculia (math), dysgraphia (written expression), executive function
(planning, organizing, etc.), dyspraxia (fine and gross motor), perceptual disorders (visual, auditory),
processing disorders (cognitive, informational), Attention Deficit with and without Hyperactivity Disorder, and
National Youth Justice Awareness.
Thirty-one years after the proclamation by President Ronald Reagan designating October as Learning
Disabilities Awareness Month in 1985, awareness and action remain to be the keys to helping children and
adults with learning disabilities and AD/HD learn to cope and live with the effects of these neurological disorders. While some educational services for
students with LD and AD/HD have improved in recent years with the implementation of inclusion, overall specialized services remain unacceptably low
or nonexistent for children being homeschooled, enrolled in private educational institutions, present in the juvenile justice systems, etc., as well as for
adults in the workplace, on welfare, incarcerated or in homeless shelters. Mere accommodations are not enough to address their specialized needs.
Their abilities and talents, also, need to be validated and nurtured. This is why LD, AD/HD and Youth Justice Awareness measures are so important
and relevant to producing effective prevention/intervention services and opportunities. We need to act responsibly and proactively, so things vitally
improve for these vulnerable learners.
•According to the National Center of Learning Disabilities (NCLD), 20 percent of students with LD drop out of high school vs. 8 percent of students in
the general population.
• Teens and young adults involved in the juvenile or adult criminal justice systems are disproportionately identified as having special needs in school
and are disproportionately low-income, Black and Hispanic.
• That at least 37 percent of incarcerated youth were eligible for services.
•The 2014 “Just Learning” report published by the Southern Education Foundation and using federal data found that 30 percent of youth in the
juvenile justice system in 2010 had learning disabilities; 45 percent had problems paying attention.
• According to a 2014 report, by the Justice Policy Institute, locking up a juvenile cost states an average of $407.58 per person per day and $148,767
per person per year.
• While confined, they lack access to a high-quality, specialized education and other services.
• Among working-age adults with LD vs. those without LD: 55 percent vs. 76 percent are employed; 6 percent vs. 3 percent of adults are unemployed;
and 39 percent vs. 21 percent are not in the labor force.
The CLEI Task Force announces the forming of a new nonprofit, the Community Learning Enhancement Institute, Inc. The CLEI, conceptually designed
by me is intended to be a comprehensive multidisciplinary, full-service community-based level facility providing lifespan personal, socioemotional,
academic, interest/talent, career, service learning, and educational developmental services and opportunities for eligible and qualifying children,
parents/guardians, families, adults and senior citizens.
The CLEI-NLRC will provide a full-service, comprehensive, multidisciplinary diagnostic-prescriptive team approach proactively involving and engage the
clients and their families in a personalized, individualized, specialized and therapeutic curriculum designed to meet the goals and aspirations of each
client. The CLEI-NLRC will provide a family-like environment that will house all of the critical elements to encourage pediatric and adult clients to
recognize and strive towards successfully meeting their true potential, while uncovering, developing and proactively utilizing their God-given
gifts/talents in our community.
If you have nonprofit business and educational institution development expertise, an interest in and are available for helping to develop the CLEI-
NLRC, please contact me at futurequest@cox.net.
Jamison is the designer of the Community Learning Enhancement Institute Inc.
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(Photo: Special to the News Journal)