NJ Governor Chris Christie has announced a proposal to create additional specialized schools for educating children with autism in the manner they require. Many students with autism require individualized, 1:1 support all day long which becomes extremely expensive. Many parents are faced with the dilemma of continuing there children in a system that strives to offer the proper education but cannot, or place them in private school and incur exorbitant tuition rates. Chris Christie in NJ seems to be aware of this dilemma and wants to create additional specialized public schools specific for autism which would ensure a quality of instruction that existing public schools are unable to achieve. The bottom line is that children with autism need to be instructed in a very specific, scientific manner, and they need to receive this type of intensive intervention early on. I applaud Governor Christie for acknowledging that a problem exists and attempting to do something about it. I would like to know more about what these programs will offer, namely: will there be full-day 1:1 instruction for each child, will the teachers trained, certified, and experienced in ABA and/or other methodologies, what other services/resources will be available.
One of the biggest problems we have in NYC is the scarcity of effective specialized schools for children with autism. In New York, children with autism are oftentimes placed in what is known as District 75, which is something of a misnomer because it's not an actual geographic district but rather a metaphorical district that spans the entire NYC area. But in many cases District 75 is not able to offer the type of instruction that a particular child needs. If NYC could acknowledge this problem and make a plan of attack to fix it, it would save itself millions of dollars per year and get on track to offer the kind of free and appropriate education that every child with autism is entitled to.