A Delaware judge is hearing testimony in a lawsuit alleging that officials are failing to provide adequate educational opportunities for disadvantaged students, partly because local school property tax collections are based on assessments that are decades old. The lawsuit says inadequate funding disadvantages tens of thousands of children from low-income families, children with disabilities and English Language Learners.
Delaware Disabilities Law Program Director Laura Waterland, a member of CDS’s Community Advisory Council, writes that an increase in turnout among voters with disabilities in 2018 suggests the demographic may play a large role in the 2020 elections. She shares information about the ways Delawareans can register to vote.
Significantly more people with disabilities cast ballots last year than in the 2014 midterm election, according to a new report from Rutgers University suggesting that this demographic may impact the 2020 presidential race. About half of all citizens with disabilities voted in the 2018 midterm elections, up 8.5 percentage points from the 40.8 percent who did so in 2014.
The News Journal profiles Carter Marlowe, a rising fifth-grader diagnosed with autism who has flourished as a Little League baseball player, seeing improvements in his social skills and comfort level as well as his athletic ability. CDS Associate Director Brian Freedman suggests an ingredient in Carter’s growth includes a supportive community that enables Carter to pursue something he loves doing.
Karyl Rattay, the director of the Delaware Division of Public Health, writes that Delaware’s new law raising to 21 the legal age to buy tobacco and vape products will help reduce negative health outcomes caused by “the leading cause of preventable death and disability in Delaware and the United States.” The legislation was introduced by Sen. Bryan Townsend and signed by Gov. Carney in April.
