The new season of “ABC Afterschool Specials”...

The new season of “ABC Afterschool Specials” gets under way Wednesday afternoon with “Just a Regular Kid: An AIDS Story” (3-4 p.m. on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42).

“This is not just a film about AIDS,” says executive producer Diana Kerew. “It is a story of a community that faces the severest kind of threat: a health risk to its children. . . . We hope that ‘Just a Regular Kid’ will contribute to more humane attitudes toward persons with AIDS, while it educates the audience about ways in which the spread of the disease can be controlled.”

In the drama, a 16-year-old boy (Christian Hoff) contracts the disease after a contaminated blood transfusion. His parents try to help him cope with the news, but his best friend (Wally Ward) is torn between loyalty or joining those who want the young man removed from school.

Ward and Hoff are pictured on the cover. The cast also includes Florence Henderson and Ronny Cox as the boy’s parents, and Jessica Walter as his physician.