{Back-to-School Series}
"Public Schools Educating Kids with Autism'
Question: How are the Public and Private Schools Educating the Kids in your Community School District?
Remember, your tax dollars help pay for the education of Students.
Are you seeing a return on your annual academic investments?
Are the youth in your community receiving a 'world-class' education?
Public Schools Prepare to Educate Kids with Autism
Autism: A Growing Challenge for Public Schools
Read about why more students with autism are attending public schools
[excerpt of Public Schools Prepare to Educate Kids with Autism]
{via OSEP Centers PBIS News Media}
August 15, 2007
Like a lot of 11-year-olds, Austin Wright likes junk food. This handsome redhead munches on chips and squirms on the couch next to his mother, Sara Wright, while she talks about how she and her husband, Jerry, learned that Austin had autism. She says that by the time Austin was 3, his vocabulary was limited to a few words: dada, mama. Other kids were zooming past him developmentally.
Their pediatrician said Austin was just a slow learner, but his parents knew otherwise. A Boston area specialist saw him, and immediately recognized the signs. She told the Wrights that Austin had a form of autism, and that he needed special educational therapy right away.
There are more than half a million children in this country diagnosed with some degree of autism, and that number keeps on growing. Many of the most severe cases must be educated in private schools, and local public schools must pick up much of the tab. But now, many public schools are preparing to educate these kids themselves. The May Institute, a Boston-area research and education center for children with serious developmental delays, is helping them get ready.
Austin was admitted to the May Institute shortly after he was diagnosed.
References & Resources
PBIS News Media (COMMUNITY) - US Dept. of Education Office of Special Education Center For Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports
PBIS in News Media
Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge - Winner of the 2010 Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge
Congressman Phil Hare Supports PBIS - Rock Island School District web site (Mar. 2010)
Hare works on education - Daily Review Atlas (Monmouth, IL: Mar. 2010)
School Program Molds Good Behavior In Rocky Hill - Hartford Current.com (Nov, 2009)
Monroe County schools reward good behavior - Democrat Chronicle.com (Nov, 2009)
Martin County High School's PBIS in South Florida - West Palm Beach News Video (Oct, 2009)
Positive Behavior Emphasized in Shelbyville Schools - Shelbyville Daily Union.com (August 28, 2009)
Intervention Program 'Checks On' Students (An article on CICO) - State Journal-Register in Springfield Illinois (April 20, 2009)
Positive Behavior Proves Productive in School - NBC Connecticut Local News (March 2, 2009)
Rewarding Positive Behavior - Mt. Vernon Register News (August 22, 2008)
Positive behavior support plan to transform negative behavior to positive in the Swartz Creek School District - Swartz Creek News (July 03, 2008)
Related NPR Stories
Parents Fight for Autism Insurance CoverageAug. 16, 2007
Pulitzer-Winner on Living with Asperger'sAug. 13, 2007
Parents of the Autistic Weigh Lifelong Care OptionsApril 11, 2007
Cause of Autism Narrowed Down to 100 GenesMarch 15, 2007
Joshua's Tough Questions for His MotherMarch 17, 2006
Camp Teaches Autistic Children How to Fit InAug. 16, 2004
Integrating the Arts Across the Curriculum 
Ed Tech 2012: Boosting Student Achievement | Philadelphia 
