Senator DOUGLAS. Fifteen years from now you may find the Commissioner of Education with six secretaries through whom you have to go, and he may be in a marble palace 60 feet long, and that you will have to go in overawed by the splendor of the surroundings Mr. GRAY. Speaking of splendor, I just wonder if the testimony has brought out Senator DOUGLAS. All in the name of crippled children and all in the name of poor children. Mr. GRAY. Yes, I realize that. I think it is interesting in thinking about that, I was certainly shocked to learn when I started to try to develop the interest of the educational people in the problem of children with epilepsy, that is, the interest was already there, but we voluntary organizations wanted to help them in getting the job done-I was surprised to learn in the Division of Special Education in the Federal Office of Education they have two professional workers to handle the entire country and one and one-half clerical people to help the professional workers. That is, there just are funds that are needed if these programs are going to be established and in a way that is most beneficial to all children who are handicapped. I think you want, in any bill of this kind, to be assured of a certain minimum level of services. Senator DOUGLAS. That is correct. Mr. GRAY. You do not want to spend your money on inadequate or inferior services, and I think Federal and State participation is one way of getting a little closer to that ideal and that goal. I agree with you there are problems. My board is represented by people who think very, very seriously about those problems. They did not endorse this bill lightly. This is a form of Federal aid to education. They went over this very carefully before making their decision on this. But I think they did feel that with the excess costs involved in special education there was a real need for participation. Senator DOUGLAS. Does not our State of Illinois meet these costs? Mr. GRAY. Surely, but I would think, myself, that the money comes out of my pocket one way or the other. What difference does it make, really, whether I pay to the State of Illinois or pay to the Federal Government if I can get the kind of administration of the act that I want to achieve the goal of the act. Then it really is not too important to me whether I will pay Illinois, who spends the money, or the Federal Government. I think they both should participate, and I think this bill provides that. Programs in three large cities, Detroit, New York, and Baltimore, have demonstrated that it is possible to include the epileptic child successfully in the public school program. In these cities, special programs and services have been developed to adapt the school program to the individual needs and handicaps of each child. In Detroit the special program for children with epilepsy has been in existence about 10 years. The Detroit Board of Education provides a special school for children with epilepsy. Children whose seizures are not under control are transferred to this school where special medical and educational services are available to meet their needs so that they shall not be deprived of their right to public schooling. When the pioneer program in Detroit was first conceived, it was thought all children with epilepsy would need to be provided for in the special school. Experience, however, has shown that this is not necessary. More and more children are being prepared by the program of special education at the special school for a return to the regular classroom. There is a constant flow back and forth of pupils between the special school and the regular schools. In New York City, about a thousand children with epilepsy are known to be in attendance in the public schools. When a child with epilepsy comes to the attention of the school authorities, he is carefully studied to determine whether he has any special needs in addition to medical treatment for the physical handicap. Psychological case studies including intelligence and aptitude tests are a part of the service. A program of parent and teacher education is carried on and teachers are furnished with consultation and supervisory services to give them a better understanding of special problems which may arise. It has been possible in all but 40 cases for the epileptic child to continue in the regular classroom under this program. Home teaching is provided for those few cases that are not yet ready to take their place in the regular classroom. Even in these cases, education is not being neglected while a solution to their medical and social problems is being sought. During the past 2 years, a special committee on epilepsy has been jointly sponsored by the National Epilepsy League and the International Council for Exceptional Children. This committee has gathered facts about the educational needs of children with epilepsy and the gaps in educational programs. Educational authorities throughout the country have shown interest, recognition, and sympathy with the unmet educational needs of children with epilepsy. However, special educational services for this group of children mean greater expenditures of money on the part of the school district. Just as an exceptional child usually requires a larger share of the family budget, it is to be expected that his school training will also be more costly. These interested administrators has pointed out that they need professional and technical consultation services as well as financial assistance if they are to plan successful educational programs to meet the needs of this group of handicapped children. In working with this problem, as I said, we have been shocked to learn that the special education division in the Federal Office of Education has only two professional workers. These two people skilled in problems of special education-and with a travel budget of $300 annually-are attempting to meet the needs of the entire country for professional and technical consultation services relative to the needs of all handicapped children. Medical research has already provided the know-how necessary to solve the medical problems of children with epilepsy in three out of four cases. Many communities are planning the development of specialized treatment facilities that will make modern medical treatment available in areas where this has not been available heretofore. Elimination or reduction of the physical handicap of the illness will not solve all of the problems of children with epilepsy. Much of the beneficent results of medical progress will be lost if the schools are not prepared to accept their responsibilities for planning educational programs suited to the needs of this group of children. We believe the enactment of this legislation will encourage and stimulate the States in establishing and developing educational programs for children with epilepsy as it will for other groups of handicapped children. We are sure money spent for this program that encourages the development of the natural capacities and interests of handicapped children with result in adults prepared to meet the responsibilities of a normal self-supporting existence. The program will return savings to the Nation in dollars and cents. The funds spent on the encouragement and development of special education services in our schools will result in savings in expenditures on other less positive programs of health and welfare. Senator HILL. Thank you very much for your testimony, Mr. Gray. Mr. GRAY. Thank you. Senator HILL. Mrs. Jack Fahy, executive director, American Parents Committee. We are happy to have you here. Proceed in your own way. STATEMENT OF MRS. JACK B. FAHY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE AMERICAN PARENTS COMMITTEE, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mrs. FAHY. I am Mrs. Jack B. Fahy, executive director of the American Parents Committee. For more than 3 years, our committee has been working to improve the health, education, and welfare facilities for children. And I am happy to report that a great deal of progress is being made both from the standpoint of legislation and from the point of national interest in working to increase the pitifully inadequate services for American children. The American Parents Committee is a nonprofit educational organization, with an actively participating board of directors interested in child welfare. George J. Hecht, publisher of Parents' magazine, is chairman. With your permission, I would like to include the names of the board in the record. (The list referred to is as follows:) THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE AMERICAN PARENTS COMMITTEE, INC. Officers: Chairman: George J. Hecht, president of Parents' Institute, Inc. (publishers of Parents' Magazine and School Management); founder and secretary for 20 years of the Welfare Council of New York City; vice president, Social Legislation Information Service. Vice chairmen : Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher, novelist and educational authority, Arlington, Vt. Walt Disney, motion-picture producer, Hollywood, Calif. Robert L. Johnson, president, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa.; chairman, Citizen's Committee for the Hoover Report. Treasurer: Harold A. Rich, vice president, Chase National Bank, New York, Secretary: Melvyn Gorden Lowenstein, attorney, New York, N. Y. Board of directors: David Baird, vice president of Marsh & McLennan, real-estate firm; Dr. Hildegard Durfee, child psychologist; former supervisor of WPA Maximillian Elser, president, Elser & Cothran, public-relations firm. Arthur C. Fatt, executive vice president, Grey Advertising Agency, New Dr. Benjamin Fine, education editor of the New York Times. Carl A. Gray, president of the Grenby Manufacturing Co., Plainville, Mrs. George J. Hecht, board member, New York Society for Crippled Dr. Mary Fisher Langmuir, president of the Child Study Association Mrs. Clara Savage Littledale, editor, Parents' Magazine. Mrs. Oswald B. Lord, board member of Community Chests and Council, Dr. George S. Mitchell, executive director, Southern Regional Council. Mrs. Dorothy Norman, columnist, New York Post. Dr. John K. Norton, professor of education, Teachers College, Columbia Basil O'Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Col. Harold Riegelman, partner of Nordinger, Riegelman & Benetar, Oscar V. Rose, superintendent of schools of Midwest City, Okla., and Mrs. Sam Rosenman, former chairman of National Housing Conference. Dr. Robert Sears, director, Laboratory of Human Development, Harvard Dr. George N. Shuster, president of Hunter College, New York, N. Y. Mrs. Arthur White, member, Board of Mental Hygiene, New Jersey. Dr. Roma Gans, professor of education, Teachers College, Columbia Mrs. Joseph Willen, chairman, legislative committee of the National Mrs. FAHY. The 10-point legislative program on which we are working is the result of studies made on the needs of children. On our research program, we have uncovered appalling conditions of neglect-conditions which, if allowed to continue, we sincerely believe will have serious repercussions in the not too distant future. Senator Douglas, I would like to point out to you on this subject that you cannot talk economy today if you are realistic about future costs, not only in institutional care but much less in the undeveloped potential productive capacity. The American people are playing ostrich-with their heads deep in the sand-when we pretend that all American children are receiv ing educational opportunities. There are literally millions who are not. But today I want to talk about one particular group whose educational needs are badly neglected-they are the physically handicapped children. Dry statistics do not make particularly interesting reading. But there is tragedy and shame in the figures and facts I am going to include in my testimony today. They tell the story of America's crippled children. And I present them on behalf of my organization in urging this committee to take favorable and immediate action on S. 3102, the physically handicapped children's education bill. This bill, S. 3102, would provide Federal aid to the States for the education of physically handicapped children of school age. It authorizes an appropriation of $4,000,000 for the first year, with increases of $4,000,000 annually for 4 years and $16,000,000 annually thereafter. The United States Children's Bureau conservatively estimates that there are 6,395,000 crippled children in the United States today. These include children with cerebral palsy, rheumatic fever, and other heart conditions, orthopedic defects, those blind and with poor eyesight, the deaf, diabetics, and epileptics. These do not include those crippled from burns, harelips, and other afflictions, on which there are no figures. More than 2,000,000 of these children are unable to attend regular school classes because of their physical handicaps. And only one-fourth of these 2,000,000 children are receiving the benefits of special education. That leaves approximately one and three-quarters million physically handicapped children who are receiving inadequate and in some instances no elementary and secondary education. Senator DOUGLAS. I want to comment only to say you now have a figure of 6,400,000 crippled children taken from the Children's Bureau. We had another figure of 4,000,000 handicapped children, and another of one and a half million. Mrs. FAHY. That is one of the appalling things, Senator Douglas. This field has not been gone into thoroughly enough. Ever since crippled children were taken care of under title 5 of the Social Security Act you have found more and more crippled children on your waiting list on your waiting list, not being taken care of, but on your waiting list. It is not that there are more crippled children today but some of them are coming out of back rooms where they have been kept. Senator HILL. When they did not know about them before; is that it? Mrs. FAHY. That is right. No one talked about them. The crippled child was hidden. The figures I am submitting from my verbal statement tell the story of America's crippled children. And I present them on behalf of our organization in urging this committee to take favorable and immediate action on S. 3102, the physically handicapped children's education bill. This bill, S. 3102, would provide Federal aid to the States for the education of physically handicapped children of school age. It authorizes an appropriation of $4,000,000 for the first year, with increases of $4,000,000 annually for 4 years and $16,000,000 annually thereafter. The United States Children's Bureau conservatively estimates that there are 6,395,000 crippled children in the United States today. |