By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

A top congressional budget staffer told a gathering of public-policy specialists and disability advocates this week that financial pressures will force some reforms to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for disabled children, but others at a Brookings Institution forum said the political climate will make sweeping changes unlikely. Meanwhile, the investigative arm of Congress is preparing to release a report on the program, and the Institute of Medicine is in talks over a major research study.

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

Critics of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton have stepped up their campaign to stop the school’s controversial skin-shock therapy -- including disseminating a graphic video showing the school’s so-called “aversive therapy” being administered to a teenager and handing a 215,000-signature petition Wednesday to Massachusetts lawmakers.