From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A report from California’s Department of Education has concluded that autism “threatens to overwhelm local educational systems” in the state. The department’s Autism Advisory committee concluded that the state lacks “coherent universally accepted effective educational practices” for teaching students with autism.

As a result, thousands of California families face a broad gap between what they believe their child needs to learn, and what the schools will provide to help their child. Experts don’t agree on what services may help children, and school districts vary widely on the types of services they offer.

Studies show that it costs $36,000 annually to teach a student with autism. California spends $8,558 annually to educate each student who is not identified as having a disability.

It is estimated that California schools transferred more than 30 percent of regular-education dollars to special education this year, up from 4 percent in 2000.

Another report, by the state’s Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism, concluded that the increase in the number of children with autism spectrum disorders “constitutes a public health crisis.”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 6:45 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, autism, behavior, funding, politics, public health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post