Jonah Kasoff, (left) who has autism, receives individual instruction from instructor Joel Wilson at Yick Wo Elementary School in San Francisco.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Jonah (pictured above) is one of more than 46,000 California schoolchildren diagnosed with the enigmatic condition known as autism. That's more than triple the 14,000 enrolled at the beginning of the decade, making autism the fastest-rising disability in the state - and the most expensive and challenging for schools to address.
But the education system has not kept up: State experts acknowledge that California schools lack a coherent education plan for these students, employ far too few qualified teachers, and have to divert regular-education funds to supplement special education budgets.
Bluntly put, the problem is "a lack of coherent, universally accepted, effective educational practices" for teaching students with autism in the state's schools, the state Department of Education's Autism Advisory Committee declared last fall in a report.
So many "intensive services" are needed, the panel said, that autism "threatens to overwhelm local educational systems."
Lest anyone call that hyperbole, the panel added: "This statement is not an exaggeration."
