The newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network report finds that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence in the U.S. has increased to 2.8%, or 1 in 36 U.S. children born in 2012 — up from 1 in 44 from the previous report for children born in 2010.

Prevalence among 8-year-old boys was 4.3% nationwide and as high as 6.9% in California.

The policy focus of the new report is centered not around the increasing ASD rates, but rather around a social justice narrative in which disability issues take a back seat to the equity implications. …