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Florida Bill Expands Vaccine Exemptions, but Keeps Mandates in Law
Florida may keep some required vaccine mandates after all. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made national news in September when he announced a plan to remove all vaccine mandates from state law. But so far, no lawmaker has any bill that would do away with the mandated vaccines, which include required shots for polio, measles, mumps and more.
Instead, the bill moving forward this legislative session would keep the state’s statutory vaccine requirements but make it easier for parents to opt out. (The Department of Health is moving forward with a plan to remove four state vaccine requirements, which it can do without needing legislative approval.) A proposal that moved through its first Senate committee on Monday, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, would let parents decline a vaccine based on their conscience.
Current law only allows parents to cite a religious reason for exemption. Yarborough said, “Parents need to be in the driver’s seat for every aspect of their children’s education, their health care, their well-being, anything related thereto.”
Unitedhealth’s Nevada Companies Limit Benefits for Autistic Children, Say Parents and Providers
An expensive therapy praised as the gold standard for helping autistic children gain the skills they need to become self-sufficient is being limited by insurance companies as autism diagnoses in America have more than doubled in the last decade. In 2022, the Centers for Disease Control estimated the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder for 8 year-olds at 1 in 31, up from 1 in 69 a decade earlier. The costs associated with applied behavioral analysis (ABA), a widely-used, but expensive therapy that experts say improves outcomes for children with autism, is generally paid for by insurance.
According to providers and the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, since the beginning of the year, an unknown number of autistic children in Nevada have been denied ABA benefits, or were required to pay more for the services they need, such as one-on-one help from an aide — a registered behavior technician — during school hours. The technicians work under the supervision of a behavioral analyst, adding to the expense of the therapy.
Insurance companies determine the extent of ABA benefits, including reimbursement for one-on-one assistance, based on each child’s individual challenges, says Amy Novak, the owner of a school that serves autistic children.
Three Families, One Year: Why Louisville Parents Are Sending Children With Profound Autism out of State
In less than a year, three Louisville families have made the same heartbreaking decision to pack up their lives – not for opportunity, but for safety. Their destination is the same out-of-state residential facility chosen by two Louisville families before them. Three families, one decision, and a growing question: Why are parents concluding Kentucky can’t protect children with profound autism?
If 15-year-old Chase Crawford had a say, his family believes he’d stay right here in Louisville, surrounded by familiar faces at the Bluegrass Center for Autism, with staff who know him and therapies that have supported him most of his life. “Pretty much everything you can imagine,” his mother, Shannon Crawford, said of the care he receives during the day.
Chase is nonverbal and has profound autism. And about five years ago, everything changed. “When you look at profound autism and puberty,” Crawford said, “it’s a different game.”
Candy Under the Microscope: Florida Testing Reveals Arsenic in Sweet Treats
The DeSantis administration on Monday reported that state testing for heavy metals in 46 candy products from 10 manufacturers detected the toxic element arsenic in 28 items. The testing, conducted by an independent “certified” laboratory for the Florida Department of Health, was part of DeSantis’ Healthy Florida First initiative to provide families with information about products marketed to children.
First lady Casey DeSantis presented the results during a news conference in The Villages with her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. The concern extends beyond single servings, she said. Arsenic exposure accumulates over time and across multiple foods, meaning children may consume far more than safe levels throughout a year. Parents and grandparents often do not realize the potential risks.
Study Shows Younger Children Experience Persistent Symptoms Following Concussion
When most people think of concussion, the first type of patient that comes to mind is a youth athlete. However, concussion is also common in early childhood, largely due to kids’ naturally exploratory behavior as they experience and learn their world. A new study from researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital finds that while a toddler’s concussion experience is often different than an older child’s, symptoms can last just as long.
The study, published today in Pediatrics, examined patients ages 6 months to 6 years, and found that similar to older children and adults, about one fourth of children younger than six years of age who experience a concussion will develop prolonged symptoms, which can affect learning and behavior later in childhood.
“Because of their size differences and weaker muscles, young children are more likely to sustain a brain injury,” said Sean Rose, MD, lead author of the study, pediatric neurologist and co-director of the Complex Concussion Clinic at Nationwide Children’s. “This study helps emphasize that younger children with a head injury should be appropriately evaluated to determine if treatments or other services are needed.”
‘Grok’ Chatbot Is Bad for Kids, Review Finds
Grok, the artificially intelligent chatbot built into the social media platform X, is among the “worst” AI chatbots available and is unsafe for children and teenagers, concludes a risk assessment released Jan. 27 by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that studies youth and technology.
The bot shares false information — arguing for instance, that the “department of education” deliberately teaches educators to “gaslight” students and teach “propaganda” — and suggests risky behavior, including urging one user posing as a teen to run away from home.
It generates sexually explicit deepfakes (false images) of real people, primarily women and children. In fact, sexually suggestive image requests for Grok averaged nearly 6,700 an hour, according to data included in a Bloomberg article cited in Common Sense Media’s report.
‘Our Children’s Brains Are Not for Sale’: Macron Says France to Fast-Track Social Media Ban for Under-15s
French President Emmanuel Macron said he wants his government to fast-track the legal process to ensure that a ban on social media use for children under the age of 15 can be in place before the start of the next school year in September.
“The brains of our children and adolescents are not for sale,” Macron said in a video released late Saturday by CNN’s French affiliate BFMTV. “Their emotions are not for sale or to be manipulated, whether by American platforms or Chinese algorithms.”
“We are banning social media for under-15s and we are going to ban mobile phones in our high schools. I believe this is a clear rule — clear for our teenagers, clear for families, clear for teachers,” he stressed.
A growing number of Western countries are seeking to enact sweeping legislation to safeguard young people from the potential harms of social media, following Australia’s landmark law in December that bans under 16s from having accounts on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other platforms.
