Almost all states allow religious exemptions for vaccinations, Massachusetts included

Most US states allow students and their families to opt out of vaccinations because of religious concerns, and Massachusetts is one of them, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.

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Oklahoma: Bill Intended to Protect ‘Conversion Therapy’ Advances

Legislation that would protect the practice of therapy that seeks to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity was approved Tuesday by a State House committee. As other states ban or consider prohibiting so-called conversion therapy, the Children, Youth and Family Services Committee approved the bill 5 to 3 without debate and sent it to the full House. The measure will most likely face a tougher audience there, as medical, psychological and sociological organizations that have condemned the practice mobilize their opposition to it.

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Sales of ADHD Meds Are Skyrocketing. Here's Why.

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder is big business. That's the conclusion of a new report, published by the market research firm IBISWorld, which showed that ADHD medication sales have grown 8 percent each year since 2010 and will grow another 13 percent this year to $12.9 billion. Furthermore, it projects this growth will continue over the next five years at an annualized rate of 6 percent, and take in $17.5 billion in the year 2020—making it one of the top psychopharmaceutical categories on the market.

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Policies guide use of restraint and seclusion

The bill would require the Virginia Department of Education to develop regulations consistent with 15 principles developed by the U.S. Department of Education; include definitions of terms, criteria for use, restrictions for use, requirements for training, notification, reporting and follow-up; and address distinctions, including distinctions in emotional and physical development, between the general student population and the special education student population, and elementary school students and secondary school students, according to the bill, the AP and other sources.

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Even More: School officials weigh in on seclusion and restraint bill

Hair drug tests: A mother’s anguish over losing her girls

An unknown number of parents lost their children based, in part, on the Sick Kids’ hair drug tests now under review. Christine Rupert is one of them.

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Use of Medication On Foster Youth Investigated

Democratic Senator Jim Beall says nearly a quarter of adolescents in the California foster care system are being prescribed mood or behavior altering drugs. And he says it’s not clear who is in charge of tracking the medications foster children take.

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Backlash against calls to deny subsidies to parents of unimmunised children

Service providers have rejected a recommendation by the Productivity Commission that parents who refuse to vaccinate their children should be cut off from childcare benefits.

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ADHD medication revenue is up: report

ADHD diagnosis rates are soaring — and with them, medication prescriptions.

The ADHD Medication Manufacturing Industry, a trade group, is expecting 13% growth in revenue this year, according to the latest numbers. By 2020, ADHD meds are expected to be a $17.5 billion industry.
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Rampant medication use found among L.A. County foster, delinquent kids

Los Angeles County officials are allowing the use of powerful psychiatric drugs on far more children in the juvenile delinquency and foster care systems than they had previously acknowledged, according to data obtained by The Times through a Public Records Act request.

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Children with history of institutional care have increased risk for autism, shows study

Study published in JAACAP shows that abandoned children placed in child-centered foster care environments improves social behaviors

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Family endures bullying, threats for unvaccinated child, Utah mom says

The national debate over measles and vaccines has been in the headlines a lot lately and is becoming very personal for one Utah mom.

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State Report Shows Pressing Need to Understand Bad Behavior in Schools

Imagine walking into your young child's classroom and seeing him on the floor, his hands behind his back, as if he was being arrested. This is what happened to Lisbeth Ehrlich in Darien.

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Lawyer wants judge to order measles shots for 4 children

A court-appointed attorney for four children removed from their parents' care asked a Michigan judge on Wednesday to order measles vaccinations for the children against the wishes of their parents, who are trying to regain custody in an ongoing child neglect case.

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Rand Paul: Parents 'own' children, not the state

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) doubled down on his position that most vaccines should be voluntary, suggesting Monday that mandated immunization is an example of government overreach.

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