Although the Wrightslaw conferences aren’t specific to autism spectrum disorders, they are one of the best resources available for parents that want to learn more about special education law. The more you know about IDEA 2004, 504s, IEPs, etc, the better advocate you can be for your child. The following is a list of the Wrightslaw Special Education Law Conferences scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2010.

• October 21, 2010: Springfield (Greater Philadelphia), PA
• October 28, 2010: Aouthern NH
• November 4, 2010: Newburgh, NY
• December 9, 2010: Oklahoma City, OK

Registration is limited at most of these events so early registration is key. For more information, visit the Wrightslaw website.

Alexicom Tech’s internet-based Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system is convenient and the company has just improved their service with the recently released free Android app. The new app allows Alexicom users to port their Alexicom pages directly to their Android device. A convenient AAC system is literally at your fingertips.

For more information on the new app, visit the Alexicom Tech Android app instruction page.

Not all children with an autism spectrum disorder are sent to a public or private school. For a variety of reasons, many families choose to homeschool their autistic child. When a parent is considering the option of homeschooling her child, finding resources to help can be time-consuming. Whether choosing between a homeschool program and school outside the home or finding an autism-friendly curriculum, having a set of resources together in one readily accessible place makes the entire process easier.

Choosing to Homeschool
For some parents, the decision to homeschool their child with autism is easy. These parents have always envisioned teaching their child at home and the autism diagnosis does not change these plans. Other parents may choose to send a child to school for the early grades but due to bullying or other issues, choose to continue their child’s education at home.

Another common reason that parents use when deciding to homeschool is the child’s diet. Many times children on the autism spectrum are on a special diet – from the Feingold Plan to the gluten-free/casein-free (GCFC) diet, managing special eating plans in a school-setting can be difficult. By choosing to educate the child at home, there is no concern that a slip-up in the child’s diet may happen.

Autism-Friendly Curriculum
Some parents that choose to homeschool follow a set curriculum. Sometimes called “school at home”, the use of a curriculum can help parents provide an element of structure to their homeschool program. A popular curriculum method that some parents use is participating in a virtual school. One such school, the Arizona Virtual Academy (AZVA) offers a free online curriculum for Arizona-based parents to use with their children from Kindergarten through grade 12.

For those looking for a more traditional homeschool curriculum, the Charlotte Mason method is one of the more popular programs used by families of children with special needs including autism. The Charlotte Mason method uses literature-based instruction as opposed to traditional textbooks as part of its program.

Homeschool Legalities
A family that is considering the option to homeschool their child with autism should look into their state’s laws regarding homeschooling. Some states have very lax laws requiring nothing more than a notification that a child is being homeschooled while others require regular testing and reports to the state. To determine what your state’s homeschool requirements are, contact the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) at (540) 338-5600.

Homeschool and Therapy Options
Even though you may choose to homeschool your child, the child can also receive therapies through your local public school under the guidance of an IEP (Individualized Education Plan). The local public school district is responsible for providing therapy to all children that qualify for such services, regardless of where the child is being educated. If you would like to have your child assessed for speech, occupational or physical therapy contact the special education department of your local school district.

As autism is becoming more prevalent, the amount of children with autism being homeschooled is also rising. As a result, more attention is being given to creating optimal homeschool curricula that parents can use to educate their autistic child.

School districts across the U.S. struggle with the combination of two harsh realities: an increasing intensity of budget cuts for 2010-11, and complying with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which guarantees “free appropriate” education to all disabled students including the growing number of students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In addition, parents are pressuring schools to either comply with the IDEA or face legal action.

Public school administrators and special education directors looking for innovative ways to save costs, while still providing a quality evidence-based education for students with autism, are utilizing low-cost but high-tech services that offer curriculum planning, staff training and data tracking and reporting. A company offering such a technology that is seeing rapid adoption in public school districts is Rethink Autism.

“Although we are in our most dismal budget time in education, I can’t imagine us not spending the dollars necessary to continue with the Rethink Autism program,” says Ms. Laura McGill, Program Specialist at the School District of Indian River County, Florida.

Rethink Autism’s unique web-based program provides teachers with a comprehensive evidence-based curriculum through 1200+ video-based teaching steps, parent and staff training modules, an assessment tool, and progress tracking features. The curriculum, endorsed by leaders in the field of autism treatment and research, spans the entire autism spectrum and covers a broad range of skills, including academics, language, social, motor, daily living, and behavior managements.

“There may be no greater challenge facing public schools today than the staggering increase in children diagnosed with autism,” writes Fran Smith(1), a contributing editor at Edutopia.org, a website published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

A recent study(2) by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), based on a survey of 453 school administrators conducted in March 2010, showed that school budget cuts will be noticeably more significant for 2010-11 than recent years, with the depletion of stimulus funds and continued budget strains at the state and local levels.

An estimated 637,000 children ages 3-17 in the U.S. (or 1 in 91) had a current ASD diagnosis in 2007 according to a widely accepted study(3) published in the October 5, 2010 issue of Pediatrics. That represents a 67% increase from a previous estimate from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, which reported autism rates of 66 per 10,000 children (or 1 in 150) in 2002.

Shrinking budgets and serving a growing number of students with an ASD are not the only issues that U.S. public schools are facing. However, the priority and urgency of the matter is compounded by the significant financial and legal risk of not addressing the issue.

“Parents press for evidence-based educational strategies and school administrators realize that it may be cheaper to beef up autism programs than continue to fight lawsuits,” writes Smith. “In fact, almost every student at almost every leading private school for autism attends at public expense.”

Notes:
(1) “Educators Deal with the Growing Problem of Autism,” by Fran Smith, Edutopia (March 2008).
(2) “A Cliff Hanger: How America’s Public Schools Continue to Feel the Impact of the Economic Downturn,” published by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) in March 2010.
(3) “The Prevalence of Parent-Reported Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children in the United States, 2007,” published in the Oct. 5 issue of Pediatrics.

Although the Wrightslaw conferences aren’t specific to autism spectrum disorders, they are one of the best resources available for parents that want to learn more about special education law. The more you know about IDEA 2004, 504s, IEPs, etc, the better advocate you can be for your child. The following is a list of the Wrightslaw Special Education Law Conferences scheduled in the third quarter of 2010.

• July 29, 2010: New Orleans, LA – Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by Families Helping Families of SELA. Speaker: Pete Wright.

Registration is limited at most of these events so early registration is key. For more information, visit the Wrightslaw website.

The State of California will begin requiring special education teachers to receive additional training that focuses on autism and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). According to Catherine Kearney, president of the California Teacher Corps, approximately 25,000 teachers will need to take this training before they can have a student with an autism spectrum disorder in their classroom. The deadline for compliance is July 2011.

You can download a Podcast of the story from The Press-Enterprise for more information:

Special-ed teachers’ training includes autism

Although the Wrightslaw conferences aren’t specific to autism spectrum disorders, they are one of the best resources available for parents that want to learn more about special education law. The more you know about IDEA 2004, 504s, IEPs, etc, the better advocate you can be for your child. The following is a list of the Wrightslaw Special Education Law Conferences scheduled in the second quarter of 2010.

• April 10, 2010: Davenport, IA
• April 15, 2010: Hackensack, NJ
• April 22, 2010: Bowie, MD
• April 30-May 1, 2010: Portland, ME

Registration is limited at most of these events so early registration is key. For more information, visit the Wrightslaw website.

I don’t usually copy and paste press releases in their entirety but I thought this may be of interested to The Autism Education Site readers that use ABA therapy in their child’s treatment regime.

Parents of Children With Autism Worldwide Can Now Help Their Children Learn at Home

In the past, parents of children with autism worldwide had little hope of finding effective and affordable treatment services for their child. Today, parents are discovering that they can now easily apply the latest research to help their child learn at home. Evidence-based research suggests that a key to effective learning is the use of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to teach children with autism. A company making ABA best-practice treatment tools accessible to parents around the world through the Internet is Rethink Autism (http://www.rethinkautism.com/).

“Since beginning the Rethink Autism lessons, we have discovered a new child. He is smart, he has great potential, and he learns so fast,” said Latifa Hajoui in Hesse, Germany, who began using the Rethink Autism platform in November 2009. “Rethink Autism gives me the tools that I need to work with my son directly when he doesn’t have access to his ABA therapist.”

Ms. Hajoui’s son receives ABA therapy six hours a month, far less than the clinically recommended 25+ hours per week. She tried to learn from the therapist how to work with her son for the remainder of the time. However, her son was making little progress so Ms. Hajoui subscribed to Rethink Autism’s platform and followed the individualized curriculum. “The therapist visited us recently, and she couldn’t believe that [my son] had learned so much in such a short time,” said Ms. Hajoui. “He can match shapes, letters, numbers, and words. He can imitate a peer, and he can imitate actions with object, sequencing actions, build model. He can also imitate words.”

When using Rethink Autism, a parent assesses the child by filling out a skills checklist, and the program then formulates an individualized ABA-based learning plan for the child. “Our goal is to make ABA accessible to families without clinical jargon or a diagnostic maze. Each lesson plan includes several step-by-step videos that show ABA therapists working with a child with autism, so that parents know how to work with their children through very specific needs anytime and anywhere,” said Jamie Pagliaro, executive vice president of Rethink Autism.

Rethink Autism offers 1200+ video lesson steps that are consistent with ABA methodology. Endorsed by the US Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics, ABA is the only treatment for autism that has been consistently validated by independent scientific research.

Even in the U.S. where there is a high level of awareness about autism, parents can still struggle to know where to find the ABA tools they need or professionals that can help. “Every parent should know that there is help out there. With Rethink Autism, my child has made incredible progress,” says Evelyn O’Neil Brown, mother of a 5-year old son with autism in New York.

“Before joining school for the second time, my son was unable to sit down with a group or even imitate steps to a song,” said Khadeeja Abdullah, from Bangkok, Thailand. “However, after starting the Rethink Autism ABA curriculum, he was able to sit with others for the first time. Even if he didn’t sit with them for too long, he was paying attention to activities and doing work while sitting. I simply cannot credit this program enough for its help in guiding how I work with my son. It has helped me build a solid foundation for his education.”

Although the Wrightslaw conferences aren’t specific to autism spectrum disorders, they are one of the best resources available for parents that want to learn more about special education law. The more you know about IDEA 2004, 504s, IEPs, etc, the better advocate you can be for your child. The following is a list of the Wrightslaw Special Education Law Conferences scheduled in the first quarter of 2010.

• January 15, 2010: Tampa, Florida
• March 18, 2010: Lake Charles, LA
• March 20, 2010: Wheaton, IL
• March 25, 2010: Bakersfield, CA
• March 27, 2010: Grand Rapids, MI

Registration is limited at most of these events so early registration is key. For more information, visit the Wrightslaw website.

Wrightslaw, one of the biggest names in special education advocacy and information, is preparing for the Wrighstlaw Indiana Conference. The theme for the September 18, 2009 conference is IDEA 2004 & NCLB: What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You! with Wayne Steedman, Esq.

IDEA = Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
NCLB = No Child Left Behind

This six hour conference will provide parents with the information they need to better advocate for special education services for their children. While this conference is not autism-specific, the same laws apply to all children in the special education system. Speaking from personal experience, being armed with a solid understanding of your child’s rights under IDEA 2004 will help you when it comes to IEPs, placement, therapy requests, etc.

Registration for this one day conference is $135.00 and the event will be held at:

Junior Achievement of Central Indiana
7435 North Keystone Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46240.