Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) will open a new program this fall to provide intensive academic and behavioral services for students in grades nine through 12 who have emotional disturbance, serious behavior issues or developmental disabilities.

Metro voted at its April 13 board meeting to engage Spectrum Center Schools and Programs to establish Spectrum Academy to provide technology-based academic instruction, social and life skills counseling, and behavioral support services for students with disabilities who are referred by MNPS. Spectrum Academy will also help with employment and career development so students can successfully transition to life after high school, Gail Debiec, Spectrum chief operating officer, said.

Spectrum, a division of Nashville-based Educational Services of America (ESA), has operated state-certified schools and integrated collaborative classrooms on public school campuses for more than 35 years. Spectrum serves nearly 100 school districts and is one of California’s largest private providers of services for students with special needs, including autism.

“Metro sought an intensive, structured academic and behavioral program to serve students with emotional disturbance, which is a legal handicapping condition, or developmental disabilities in a specialized facility,” Metro assistant superintendent Linda DePriest said. “We selected Spectrum because of its high-quality, research-supported best practices, data-driven instruction and 35-year history of successful student outcomes. Our students will benefit from Spectrum Academy’s low student:teacher ratio, rigorous academics and strong behavior support systems.”

Students who have Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and are referred to Spectrum Academy typically will be several grade levels behind academically and have exhibited serious repetitive behavior problems such as truancy, disrupting class, profanity or fighting, DePriest said.

“An important component of Spectrum Academy is the use of positive behavior interventions and supports to proactively promote social and academic success. This creates a positive school culture that inspires students to do their best and prepare to transition to life after high school,” Debiec said.

“The MNPS board and leadership are truly committed to helping students with special needs,” Mark Claypool, president and CEO of ESA, said. “We value the trust they place in us to serve their students.”
According to MNPS, the five-year contract is not to exceed $9.2 million. For more information about Spectrum Center and Spectrum Academy, please visit www.spectrumschools.com

Common Threads will soon be opening an autism school at its McFarland, Wisconsin location. Currently Common Threads is a nonprofit organization that provides center-based therapies for children on the autism spectrum. Staff at Common Threads include a bevy of therapists (including art, music, and dance), psychologists, special education instructors and community-based instructors. However the center is expanding and soon it will be a full-time school. Common Threads hosted an informational session for parents on June 13, if you are in the area and interested in the school but missed this session, you can contact Common Threads directly at (608) 838-8999.

Here’s a video about Common Threads from the local television station:

My most recent article at Suite101 highlights three autism schools in Pennsylvania: The Comprehensive Learning Center, The Pathway School, and The Vista School. Although the story only includes information about three Pennsylvania autism schools, there are several more in the state. If you’re in Pennsylvania and have experience with one of the state’s autism schools, I’d love to hear what you think. Please leave a comment below or contact me.

Thanks to a comment on my post Autism Schools in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Utah, I have added a new Florida autism school to my site – The Chase Academy.

Located in South Daytona, FL (Volusia County), The Chase Academy held a ribbon cutting ceremony on August 5. The school is a private non-profit organization with a mission to “provide educational services specifically tailored to meet the individualized needs of students with high-functioning Autism or any of the related Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and to focus these services on maximizing the students’ potential for inclusion into mainstream society.”

For more information about The Chase Academy, contact the school at (386) 690-0893.

In honor of back-to-school time, I’ve begun a series of articles on the Suite 101 website that focuses on specialized autism schools across the nation. The first three articles include Autism Schools in Arizona, Autism Schools in Colorado and Utah, and Autism Schools in Florida.

Although the list of schools I included in the article is by no means comprehensive, I chose to focus on a few select schools in each state.

Autism Schools in Arizona

• ACCEL
• Chrysalis Academy
• Gateway Academy
• Pieceful Solutions

Autism Schools in Colorado

• The Joshua School

Autism Schools in Florida

• Florida Autism Center of Excellence
• Jacksonville School for Children with Autism
• Peace by Piece
• The Victory Center

Autism Schools in Utah

• Carmen B. Pingree Center for Children with Autism
• Spectrum Academy

I received a message about this job listing and wanted to pass it on to the readers of The Autism Education Site.

Job Summary:

Directs the daily operations of a non-public school, assuring implementation of a California Standards-based curriculum, in compliance with all regulating, licensing and funding agency regulations and requirements. Performs the following duties personally and/or through reporting staff.

For more information, visit the Easter Seals Bay Area website.

I have just updated the New Jersey section of the Autism Schools database to include the Stepping Stone School in Bloomsbury. The school caters to children with emotional disorders, learning disabilities, Asperger’s Syndrome, and ADHD. The school was previously known as the Warren Glen School and was originally founded in 1978.

For contact information, visit the New Jersey Autism Schools page.

Choosing the neighborhood school or an autism school? This is a choice that many parents of children on the autism spectrum are faced with at least once in their child’s school career. The choice may need to be made more than once as your child’s needs change and as the school’s ability to meet those needs change.

Lisa Shulman, M.D., Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University addresses this question in a video segment that appeared on the ABC News website in October 2008. Here is an excerpt from the transcript:

Lets think through first the pros of the neighborhood school. There are clear advantages to being close to home: you don’t have to deal with the lengthy bus ride, the child often is on the same schedule as other children in the family, there’s an opportunity to interface with typically developing peers during the course of the day and the children that the child’s in class with are often other neighborhood children giving way to an opportunity to have playdates and other social opportunities outside the school day.

Read the entire transcript and watch the video here: What Are The Benefits Of Enrolling My Child In A Neighborhood School Versus A School Only For Students With Autism?

I’d love to hear from you, the readers of The Autism Education Site, does your child on the spectrum go to a neighborhood school or a specialized school? Are the pros and cons listed in the story what you’ve discovered?

Photo by joey.parsons

I love Twitter. I just learned about the Palm Beach School for Autism after the organization followed me on Twitter. I’m adding the PBSFA to my Florida Autism Schools page and included a few notes about the school here. If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, here’s my link: @MommyMellie.

The Palm Beach School for Autism is located in Lantana, Florida. It is a charter school that has both a preschool and an elementary school program. The school’s mission “is to provide a developmentally appropriate intense behavior intervention program for children with autism spectrum disorder and related disabilities.”

The school works with children on the autism spectrum, those with a speech and language delay as well as children qualifying for an IEP under the Other Health Impairment (OHI) category. Enrollment is on a first-come first-serve basis and students must be residents of Palm Beach County.

If you would like more information on the Palm Beach School for Autism, the school can be reached by phone at (561) 533-9917.

A woman wishing to open an autism preschool in Harlingen, Texas received a $3,000 check from a local benefit. Here’s the story from KRGV.com.

HARLINGEN – A Harlingen woman needing help to fix up an autism pre-school received a check today.

NEWSCHANNEL 5 has been following Cris Porras and her attempts to open up the pre-school.

Just two weeks ago, an organization called Fenix Autism Awareness held a bike rally benefit to help out.

Today, Porras received the check for $3,000.

The school is scheduled to open its doors by the end of this month.