Maine Sunday Telegram wrote:
MAINE VOICES
Autism educators need support
Local schools could do the job now done by expensive private institutions with the right training for professionals.
LEW COLLINS
November 22, 2009
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lew Collins is the assistant superintendent and special-ed director for RSU 38 in Readfield.
National and state news continues to report dramatic increases in the number of children diagnosed with autism. Barely a day goes by without a story or television report bringing us the news in both numbers and human-interest features.
This trend has also been noticeable in our public schools for several years now, with Maine seeing a more than 300 percent increase in the number of students with autism served in special education.
There are legitimate debates about the cause for these increases, whether it's due to better diagnostics or more liberal interpretations of the kinds of cases that should be on the "autism spectrum." What we do know is that there are more and more young students entering our schools with full-fledged "Big A" autism, students with little or no verbal language, limited social skills and prominent repetitive interfering behaviors. These are cases involving serious neurological disorder with students exhibiting classic autistic features.
Maine schools currently send some of these students to private special purpose facilities that specialize in autism education. The programs offering the best outcomes for students with autism utilize Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), arguably the only evidence-based intervention for students with classic autism.
The few private schools available provide excellent outcomes for students but cost about $65,000 to $75,000 for a year-round program and another $15,000 to $20,000 per child for transportation. Expensive, but certainly worth it if you are the parent of a child with classic autistic behaviors.
Unfortunately, the public schools end up paying for the private school's facilities and overhead (executive directors, program directors, secretary, etc) while many of our own schools have ample space and existing administrative infrastructure to do the job.
What Maine is missing in its approach to educating students with severe autism are public programs of similar quality that include the essential ingredients of highly trained staff, expert consultation and regular mainstreaming opportunities in a setting much closer to the child's local school.
Maine special education directors have pleaded with the Department of Education for years to acknowledge the need for more trained staff and to recognize the national certification for Board Certified Behavioral Analysts. The supply of BCBA professionals in Maine far exceeds the demand and many children go without a rigorous Applied Behavior Analysis program because local schools simply do not have the expertise to design and implement a public ABA program.
My school district established a regional public autism program in one of its elementary schools this past summer. The Wayne Regional Autism Program is up and running and is offering ABA programming of superior quality for young students in the Augusta area. We use the expert consulting services of QBS Inc, with Dr. Dave Lennox and Lisa Kinney, both BCBAs, working with the staff, students, and parents on a weekly basis. This level of expertise has allowed our staff to implement a phenomenal program that is turning lives around and allowing parents to rediscover their previously non-verbal and withdrawn children. Ask any of our parents and they will tell you what a tremendous difference a good program makes for their kids.
We know that ABA works and the research has been supporting this claim for many decades now. Maine desperately needs to join the other states that have recognized this fact and stop the practice of sending its most seriously involved students with autism off to private schools, often far from home. We can do this locally, for about 25 percent less cost, and with excellent outcomes for kids and families – but we need the Maine Department of Education and Legislature to get serious about it. Now.
The long-term outcomes for far too many of our young students with autism hang in the balance.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=297346&ac=PHedi
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When There's No There to get to, I'm so There!
27 Nov 2009, 11:53 am
