In the Beginning...

Our vision is to create a charter school in the Austin, Texas area for children who fall on the autistic spectrum of disorders by the fall of 2011. As parents, we feel that even though the public schools have stepped up their staff awareness, training and accommodations (thanks to IDEA and "No Child Left Behind") when it comes to autism, our children could receive a higher level of education and better tools for their future if they were given the opportunity to learn in an environment where the staff, curriculum and learning atmosphere are specifically geared towards children with autism.

There are no charter schools like this in our area and only a handful of very expensive private schools geared towards children on the spectrum. According to the Autism Society of America 1 in 100 children has a form of autism which also happens to be the fastest growing developmental disability in America. The Autism Society of America also reports that an estimated 60 billion dollars are spent annually on this disorder and a staggering 60% of costs are with adult services. In June of 2009 the Supreme Court ruled that parents of a child with a disability are entitled to reimbursement of their child’s private education (Forest Grove v. T.A.) All of this tells us there is a big gap when it comes to education and awareness and potentially a lot of children could (or are) falling through the cracks. If you are a parent of a school-aged child with autism most likely you've felt this frustration.

Planning and laying the foundation We're working on creating our 501c3 non-profit status first and will then move on to the Charter application process with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) which looks involved and long, but definitely worth it in the end if we're successful. We realize there will be a lot of careful planning and organizing over the next year but our goal is to have everything in order for next year's TEA Charter application open enrollment.

History
Our vision was born out of what we personally have experienced over the past six years with our daughter Mikaela. She's a 3rd grader in a general education (gen ed) classroom setting with accommodations and is receiving speech and limited occupational therapy in the school she attends. Keeping her in a full time gen ed setting has been a struggle since kindergarten. We've learned (the hard way) how to make sure the staff resources are kept in place to assure she really learns and isn't going to be "socially promoted" from one grade to the next.

We have been pushed more than once to move her to a resource or special ed setting. Although resource and special ed are wonderful and serve a purpose in the schools for certain children - they definitely don't suit our daughter. We know we are not the only parents who have had to fight this fight - which validates that either resources are strained or the staff simply don't have time or training to stop and teach the way these kids needs to be taught. We don't fault the main stream schools for this, after all they're really built best for the every day student.

So our quest has begun! We have a lot of work to do but hope in the end to bridge the gap for students with autism in public schools.