Colorado schools learn to deal with more students with autism

From The Gazette in Colorado Springs. Read an essay by Joshua Wright, 11, about what it is like to be a young person with autism.

It’s mid-morning, and Teresa Wright is relaxing on her living room couch, sighing that familiar sigh mothers everywhere emit after a hectic morning getting the kids off to school.

But Wright has more on her mind than making sure the kids have their lunches and homework assignments. Three of her five sons — an 11-year-old and 9 year old twins — have autism spectrum disorder, and over the years, she and her husband, Patrick, have worked endlessly to make sure the boys’ school experiences have been productive.

She has nothing but praise for Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8, where her children attend classes. But even though D-8’s program for autistic students is considered one of the best in the area, she says, having autistic children in any school system is a never-ending job of making sure they’re getting the education they need.

“I tell parents new to autism that you have to advocate for your child all the time.”

More and more parents have been learning that lesson in recent years as the number of students with autism has exploded. One in every 150 children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder; 14 years ago only one in 10,000 children was thought to have it. In Colorado, the number jumped from 246 students in 1998 to 2,416 in 2008.

Faced with this dramatic increase, public school systems are struggling to give autistic students the best education they can in the least restrictive environment, as required by federal law. But finding money and trained workers to get the job done makes it difficult.

“It affects our budget greatly,” says Brian Printz, executive director of special programs in District 8, which has one of the highest number of autistic students in the region. “Our most expensive kids can cost $60,000 a year if they need to participate in special programs outside the district. Or if they have a para-professional for one-on-one support and other specialists, it can easily cost $25,000 to $40,000.” Other districts report similar costs.

While school districts get federal and state funds to help meet the needs of disabled students, that still covers only about 20 percent of the extra cost of educating them, Printz says. The rest must come from the district budget.

The costs can be astronomical for severely autistic students, who often need intense, one-on-one instruction to master not only rudimentary classroom subjects, but basic life skills such as eating, toilet training, and verbal and non-verbal communication.

The Wrights know all too well what schools are up against in trying to meet the needs of the growing population of autistic children — and what a good program can do to help them.

After their oldest, Joshua, was diagnosed, he was placed in an early-intervention pre-kindergarten class in District 8.

“The teacher was an angel and helped us get through many challenges,” Teresa Wright says. “He was there two years and learned to read and follow directions. Now language is his strong suit.”

Her twins, Seth and Noah, were also placed in the same risk-intervention preschool that Joshua attended.

“That experience for them was just huge,” she says.

Because there was not a certified autism behaviorist in the district at the time, the twins also were bused to the nonprofit Alpine Autism Center, the only nonprofit facility in Colorado Springs that provides state-of-the-art, one-on-one tutoring by behavioral experts who steep the children in an intense regimen. The program can cost as much as $80,000 per child, a tab that is usually picked up by a child’s district.
The twins attended Alpine for a half semester, but the 90-minute bus trip each day became too much.

“The district eventually hired its own behaviorist because it was cheaper,” Wright says.

It’s one indication that Pikes Peak area school districts are getting better at addressing the needs of autistic children. AlisonSeyler, former president of the Autism Society of Pikes Peak Region, recalls how bad things were 14 years ago when she and others started the group.

“We had to bring resources and speakers to Colorado Springs to help educate teachers.,” she says. “While I’d say there are only pockets of excellence in districts, things are a lot better.”

Cost, of course, is one factor that keeps districts for achieving excellence in their programs. Rural districts, for instance, have to rely on outside agencies to help them provide services.

For the larger districts, finding teachers and paraprofessionals who are trained in the newest autism classroom techniques is a significant problem.

“Colleges are just now starting to graduate more students who are experts in the field,” says Chad Wight, director of learning services at Falcon School District 49, which offers training for its teachers who want to work with autistic students.

Compounding the problem for districts, is coping with the wide range of educational needs among autism students. Some are highly intelligent and have only mild behavioral problems, such as lack of focus. Others are non-verbal and non-communicative with severe cognitive deficits. Some engage in repetitive activities such as rocking and arm flapping, or have disruptive meltdowns that include screaming, hitting and throwing things.

Children with autism spectrum disorder go through a series of steps to get placed by school districts.

Barbara Day, executive director for student services at Colorado Springs School District 11, says each child is evaluated by experts to determine his situation and see if his needs can be addressed in the mainstream classroom.

If the evaluation determines the child needs special education, an Individual Education Plan will be developed that might include speech, occupational and physical therapy. On rare occasions, the child might need to be sent to an outside resource, such as Alpine or a new program started by Pikes Peak BOCES, an arm of the Colorado Department of Education.

“Our goal for every student is to graduate. Some need more support for that to happen,” Day says.

But such lofty goals still butt up again the reality of school budgets.

“In Colorado you have to rob Peter to pay Paul,” says Betty Lehman, executive director of the Autism Society of Colorado. Colorado is always ranked near the bottom in school spending — 48th in the country, according to some surveys — and the amount the state spends on special education has a similar ranking.

“The school districts are demoralized because they aren’t able to provide enough. It’s not that they don’t have an appreciation for disabilities, they don’t have the resources,” Lehman says.

Districts that have the reputation of being the best at educating special needs children downplay their successes, afraid they’ll be inundated with applications and encounter even more budget problems. And Lehman says districts also don’t emphasize how much they spend on special needs children because some families of children without disabilities get upset that less money goes for programs for their children.

But for Teresa and Patrick Wright, the money spent to educate autistic and other special-needs children is money well spent. She predicts that Joshua will be able to live independently and attend college because of the instruction he’s received, and each time district experts meet with her to discuss the boys’ Individual Education Programs, she is heartened.

“It is overwhelming and amazing feeling to walk into a room full of experts who are there to help you and your child. I think I cried during every IEP meeting for the first three or four years, and I still get misty.”