Autistic Student Numbers on Rise

by Zack Harold

Daily Mail staff

Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The number of West Virginia students diagnosed as autistic has more than tripled in nine years, and the superintendent of the county with the highest number told state school board members his county is paying as much as $200,000 per child in severe cases.

Manny Arvon, superintendent of Berkeley County Schools, spoke with board members about his county's unusually high number of autistic students in a meeting Wednesday.

He said when he first took the superintendent job there in 1997, the county had 11 autistic students. This year the county has about 161.

Arvon said his county has 30 teachers at 29 locations working with autistic students, but 15 of those teachers aren't autism-certified. He said 23 of the county's 42 autism aides have specialized training for the job.

His school system spends an average of more than $19,000 per autistic student every year to provide them with the services they need. Countywide, that amounts to more than $3 million, and those costs are likely to increase as Berkeley is averaging 15 more autistic students every year.

Arvon said some of the county's most severely autistic students are sent to a day program across the state line in Virginia. That costs the school system $100,000 plus transportation per child. If the child lives at the program, the school system pays $200,000.

Berkeley County Schools spends just under $1,800 per student in regular classrooms, Arvon said.

Pat Homberg, executive director of the education department's Office of Special Programs, told the board that 1,230 West Virginia students were currently diagnosed with autism. In the 2001-2002 school year, just 389 students were diagnosed.

She said some people have suggested the increase is due to better detection efforts.

"But that really doesn't account for this huge number of students who have been diagnosed," she said.

Homberg also provided board members with a county-by-county breakdown of autistic student enrollments as of Dec. 1, 2009.

Berkeley County led the state last year with 130 students, followed by Kanawha, the state's largest school system, with 83. Putnam County School had 45, and Cabell had 69.

State Superintendent Steve Paine pointed out that 1,230 students amount to about 0.5 percent of all West Virginia public school students.

Homberg said one in every 110 children has autism and one in 70 boys are diagnosed. The national Centers for Disease Control is investigating genetic and environmental causes, "but there has not been a particular cause that has been identified," Homberg said.

Autistic children have much different needs than other students, Homberg said. Their low frustration tolerance demands predictable and structured schedules.

Some students remain in general education classes, sometimes with a special education teacher present, but others are taught in separate classes. Homberg said teaching strategies must be tailored to individual students, as each autistic child's abilities are different.

Board member Lowell Johnson asked if schools were hiring enough certified personnel to meet autistic students' needs or if they were having a difficult time finding certified employees.

"If I were a parent who had an autistic child, I would certainly want the best possible teacher in the classroom working with the child," he said.

Homberg said certified teachers are difficult to find.

Berkeley County's Arvon said, "Just because you're spending money doesn't mean you're spending it right. I think it starts with trying to attract certified people."

He said his county's biggest challenge is recruiting and retaining certified personnel for autistic students. If the county continues to hire untrained personnel, he said, "You're going to hire more."

When the county gets qualified teachers, the school system naturally gives those educators the most difficult cases.

"They leave; we burn them out," Arvon said.

"You have to deal with the behavior before you can get to the instruction," he said. Thus, some schools place an aide with every student. "And that's not the answer."

Arvon said he would like to work with the state Department of Education to start a pilot program to better serve autistic students.

Board President Priscilla Haden asked Homberg to create a list of suggestions for ways the department might improve autistic education.

After Homberg's presentation, Jeannie Elkins, chairwoman of the West Virginia Developmental Disabilities Council, showed board members a brief video about her autistic son, Alan.

She said Alan, now 26, was terrified when he enrolled in a preschool program at age 4. Fearing the same uneasy transition when he moved to kindergarten, Alan's preschool teacher started sending him to a kindergarten program for one hour every day to ready him for the switch.

His step-up time paid off two years later, when Alan made a seamless transition into a fulltime kindergarten class.

"It gave him self confidence, and I saw a completely different young child," Elkins said in the video's narration.

Seeing the success of that transition, an itinerant teacher started prepping Alan for the switch to Sherman Junior High in third grade. His aide, Carol, remained with Alan until graduation. His mother credited her as "the key to his success."

Alan made a smooth transition there and eventually to Sherman High School, where he graduated in 2003.

While in his junior year of high school, Alan joined the "building bridges" program, leaving school at noon each day to work in Boone Memorial Hospital's laundry facilities.

Jeannie said her son enjoyed the work so much, "he called it his field trip." She said Alan, now a "delightful, happy young man," recently marked his seventh year at the hospital with stellar reviews from his supervisors and coworkers.

"We often do not have success stories and this is one," Haden said after Elkins' presentation.

Board member Delores Cook, who invited Elkins to appear at the meeting, said she agreed.

"When I asked Mrs. Haden if we could have this presentation, I feel many times we come here and we hear bad stories. I felt like there are many good programs that are happening here in West Virginia, in the Department of Education," she said.