Local officials take lead in developing autism center

An autism information center for school districts, parents and groups that assist children with the disorder has found a possible home at UC Davis and state funding may soon be available to launch the project.

Las Virgenes Unified School District Board of Education member Terilyn Finders championed the "autism clearinghouse" idea in response to the dramatic rise in autism, especially among California children.

Finders rallied help from some influential politicians including Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (DAgoura Hills). Joining Pavley were Jeff Frost, executive director of the California Association of Suburban School Districts, and Mary Schillinger, the Las V i r g e n e s district's director of pupil services.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, children who exhibit autism spectrum disorder generally have poor communication and social skills. They may also display repetitive behaviors and have unusual responses to sensory experiences.

Finders' idea caught the attention of Pavley, who wrote Assembly Bill 2513, which initially called for the Autism Information and Professional Development Center to be operated under the auspices of the state Department of Education. Pavley located a more appropriate destination for the center at UC Davis' MIND Institute, a world-class autism research facility.

The 100,000-square-foot, $42 million MIND Institute, which opened in 2003, has 260 full-time staff members. Within its first three years it has drawn praise for several groundbreaking research projects. The center is now conducting a study of how autism is diagnosed and treated.

"We see AB 2513 as the first step in a multiphased project," Frost said.

Pavley presented the bill to a meeting of the Assembly budget subcommittee on education

finance and won the approval of $250,000 for the project. The initial funding for the center will allow professionals to begin compiling "best practices" in the area of autism treatment, Frost said.

The state Senate's budget subcommittee must also approve the funding and Gov. Schwarzenegger must sign the final budget. If the allocation is approved, the center could serve as a centralized information hub starting this year, Frost said.

"Our hope would be that within a oneto two-year time period, the center would be fully operational and that professional development training would be taking place in the schools," Frost said. "Again, each phase of the process requires funding and our first goal is to establish the center."

If the center is created as a separate division within the MIND Institute, Frost said the infrastructure would connect the institute with local school districts, county offices of education, special education local plan areas, regional centers and other groups that have a stake in helping children with autism.

Finders said the center would allow access to the latest research

on autism from a centralized location. Parents of autistic children now deal with doctors, teachers, administrators and others on an individual basis.

The center would assist school districts with professional training and could establish a benchmark to assess students who exhibit autistic tendencies, Finders said.

Finders' plan for an autism clearinghouse took on a life of its own, but she has continued to provide facts from a local level to support the need for such an information center. She said she speaks with advocacy groups such as Cure Autism Now and Special Needs Network, Inc. to increase awareness of the bill and the center.