• Education Subcommittee

    Standards for student placements.  This project will develop standards to help guide the process for student placement in various settings by focusing on specific student characteristics and the pros and cons of different settings for students with those characteristics.

    Standards for inclusive classrooms.  The focus of this project is to develop standards for high quality inclusive classrooms so that students with ASD have a good chance to thrive in general education classrooms alongside their peers.

    Long Term Vision

    Strategic Plan 

    Why are these needed?  Student placement and inclusion have become controversial topics, with set views sometimes overshadowing a student’s unique characteristics and needs.  Standards that are jointly created by educators and families can help ensure that decisions are based on the individual student, and that general education classrooms are staffed and prepared to support students with ASD.

    Suggested members:  Parents, autistic students and adults, educators directly serving students with ASD, professionals providing related services in schools, and education administrators, especially special education directors and principals.

    AVAILABILITY OF PROFESSIONALS WITH COMPETENCY IN AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY RELEVANT TO ASD.  The focus of this project is to increase the availability of professionals with competency in psychology to help guide the IEPs of students with ASD.  Specifically, the goal is to increase the availability of either school psychologists or clinical psychologists who are (a) knowledgeable about ASD, birth to five developmental psychology, and the biology of human behavior (including social emotional functioning), and (b) available in sufficient numbers both to participate in IEP teams and to help support other educators between IEP team meetings.

    Long Term Vision

    Strategic Plan

    Why are these needed?  As it has become clear that the ASD population is both biologically and psychologically diverse, it has also become clear that no single type of intervention or accommodation is appropriate for every student with ASD.  Rather, interventions and accommodations should be based on (1) a general understanding of how an individual’s biology affects their psychological and behavioral development, (2) which of the many biological and psychological contributors to social and cognitive functioning are affected in an individual student, and (3) the individual student’s cognitive and social emotional developmental level.  Appropriately trained psychologists have an essential knowledge base that is not possessed by general educators, special educators, speech language pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, social workers, counselors, or BCBAs.  Currently, not every school has access to school psychologists.  A recent review of national standards and school psychology programs in Oregon revealed that mere licensure as a school psychologist does not guarantee substantial knowledge of ASD or the areas of psychology most relevant to ASD.  (The same is true of clinical psychologists.)  A survey conducted by the Screening, Identification, and Assessment Subcommittee of OCASD revealed that many school psychologists lack specific training in ASD.  Others commented that they had been trained in ASD, but that their school administration limited their involvement to IQ and other types of psychological testing.  School administrators who have tried to hire school psychologists have reported that they have not received applications and others who want to hire them have reported lack of funding as a barrier.  Meanwhile, many parents report that their children with ASD are receiving interventions that are useless or even counterproductive.

    Suggested members:  Parents, autistic students and adults, educators directly serving students with ASD, professionals providing related services in schools, and education administrators, especially special education directors and principals.