Learning Disability and Autism Prevalence in New York State: The Effects of Common Core State Standards Adoption, District Resource Need, and Urbanization
By Julia Donheiser
I’ve grown up surrounded by education. My mother is a bilingual speech therapist at a school in Upper Manhattan so I’ve seen the cogs and gears within the New York City public school system. However, my older brother is the one who sparked my interest in education and education policy. He started out with a public school education but by the time he reached high school he transferred to a private school specializing in an education for students with special needs. Subjected to repeated misdiagnosis, my brother was not correctly diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, specifically Asperger’s syndrome.