Work Groups
Come to our next Coalition meeting and learn more about us for yourself! Anyone who is affected by autism is welcome to attend. Please see below for the Work Group categories and Chair(s):
Best Practices: Amy Kenzer, Angie Levin, Susan Golubock
Coordination of Care: Barbara Brent, Jytte Methmann, Joyce Millard-Hoie, Ray Morris
Education: Katie Wride, Patty McCartney, Susan Marks
Eligibility/Reimbursement: De Freedman, Aaron Blocher-Rubin , Lisa Glow
Autism Insurance Law Implementation: Lisa Glow, Aaron Blocher-Rubin, Pete Schwarz
Adults with ASD: Susan Golubock
Please contact Coordinator, Jessica Lewis at jessica@azautism.org for further details.
Hi Jessica and all,
This is Sharon from the North group. I am involved with the education group with SEPAC.
My first meeting I was at a table with the nice lady from the Az Dept of Education (sorry, don’t have her name in front of me) who was talking about the two year program for autism training that was available through them. I was in shock because I had never heard of it and thought that was great.
I am sad to say that the first person in the district that I told this to has gotten no response back from their letter to her (snail mail) about how to get this autism training. Not the response I was hoping for.
If anyone else has info on it specifically, I would appreciate it.
Sharon
hfautism@cox.net
PS Scottsdale Bible Church has offered their place to us for this next year since we don’t fit in people’s homes anymore. They have a heart for the disabled and work with SUSD too for their summer camps (and the winter camp coming). Our meeting is still the last Wed of each month 6:30-8-bring the kiddos. 7601 E Shea Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
Hi Sharon. I am part of the education group as well. And, the person you may be thinking of is Miriam Podrazik? Unfortunately, she is no longer working for the Arizona Department of Education. The person to contact about these trainings is Andrea O’Brien at andrea.m.obrien@cox.net. The first training for this statewide training is September 12. The deadline for applications to be funded by a grant has ended; however, anyone can attend any of the trainings for $100 per training (I think).
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the reply. Can you help me understand this. How would the district people go about getting into this year after year??? It has been going on for a while right? Not sure I understand the “grant has run out” part-is this for this year only, or forever ?? Sorry, but I am totally naive about this. Whatever you can do to clarify will be appreciated. You should expect that I don’t know anything at all about it, ok?
Sharon
Hi Sharon, sorry, I thought you knew about the annual grant offered by the Arizona Department of Education. Each year (usually in the spring), the Arizona Department of Education sends out a notice to the school districts to apply for a grant. The grant funds school/district teams to participate in a 2-3 year training project focusing on evidence-based practices for schools to meet the needs of students with ASD. The grants for the 2008-2009 period have already been accepted and closed. I believe the deadline for those grant submissions was early June. So, there will be a new opportunity for districts to apply in spring 2009. However, people can still attend the first day of trainings over this next year. If you would like to read about the content of those trainings, you can download the training schedule (which also has information on topic, location, and registration) at http://www.ade.az.gov/ess/cspd/personneldev/
You can also email Andrea O’Brien to request information. I have been wondering how school districts really find out about these grants and whether this information actually gets to the people who need it. And, yes, this training project has been in existence for about four years.
I hope this information is clearer and helps.
One more thing….if a teacher needs support/consultation to work with a student with ASD, a wonderful and free resource through the Arizona Department of Education is the SUPPORT Cadre: http://www.ade.az.gov/ess/cspd/personneldev/cadre/
Usually, someone who has gone through the trainings and has a high degree of expertise is assigned to the person making the request. And, I want to stress, it is free to the teacher and school! You can download a request form by clicking on the link that I’ve provided above.
OK, a second thing….if you know of a teacher who is interested in pursuing a 15-credit certificate program in the area of Autism Spectrum Disorders, I do have funding to pay the tuition for those courses. The program is provided through the Northern Arizona University, with funds from the Arizona Department of Education. All courses are online, and there is a 3-credit competency-based fieldwork. Please feel free to email me at susan.marks@nau.edu.
I am opening a pizza restaurant that has gluten free and casein free options. I would be happy to come to your meeting and tell more about it, if you would like. I understand how difficult it is to eat out if you are gluten and/or casein free and it is one of the main reasons I bought this franchise.
Please let me know if I can share more with you and your members.
Thank You,
Jennifer Parks
Pizza Fusion
Hi all,
Well, I can see one of the basic problems with helping our educators and paraprofessionals get trained in autism-no responses from our contacts with Az Dept of Educ! I have someone in the schools who was all excited to get that training(it is that two or three year training program). I gave them all the info that had been given to me back in the summer from my first meeting with Az Autism Coalition and then recently when I had been told the position had changed to another individual. No reply after considerable time both times writing smail mail to Az Dept of Educ, care of those individuals.
And we wonder why there is not enough people in the districts who understand autism-here is step one of the problem. You have someone who was excited and interested and they have totally busted the bubble.
I also found out that when it was time to take the school picture of the staff, the paraeducators were scheduled to do work duty and some could not be included in the nice big framed picture of the staff for that year. Would that make you feel unimportant?? When we quit treating the para pros who are mostly in charge of our kids like second class citizens, maybe then we can start to get a better crop of para pros. They don’t even have email addresses when everyone else in the school does.
If we want to help people getted trained in autism, let’s make it as hard as possible or impossible to get information about it, ok??? (note sarcasm)
Sorry-you are catching me angry and frustrated.
Hi Everybody,
Susan Golubock led me here – thanks Sue! I am aspie, inspired into the field of speech language pathology field by a wonderful full-blown kanners who, although nonverbal, reached out to the world for the right to communicate differently. He spoke at conferences and mentored other facilitated speakers. Facilitated speakers are always at risk of losing the right to communicate. The NT world is always poised to take away their right to free speech, and then label them retarded for their inability to communicate.
My realization of being aspie provided me less understanding of myself – I know who I am – than greater understanding of the NT world. I can see ways I am still not fitting in, and can now fine tune my passing even better. But passing for 40-hours a week is such a stressor. While a few enlightened individuals can see me as a whole person with strengths in addition to my needs, I wish the general NT world could learn a little flexibility around those with differences: see past some of the oddities to appreciate what I do really well. I work in a public school and that can be one of the most intolerant environments for autism – scary when they are educating autie children!! I have learned the hard way to not “come out.”
I feel that an important mission for us all would be to celebrate our diversity and our paths to the understanding we have of ourselves and the world. We could share strategies for succeeding and interacting with NTs. So many of my generation who were significantly kanners were institutionalized. The rest of us made due without support or understanding of school or family. Girls present differently than guys. Even in today’s world, some children are receiving excellent early intervention, but others are at the mercy of idiotic, intolerant special educators who are not only clueless, but cruel. Our stories can be passed on to others interested in best practice, supported employment, and parents of auties as well as other groups. This discussion group has the potential to become a powerful tool to reach out to the NT world.
PS: Lingo varies. My personal perspective is likely to differ from yours. I refer to all of us on the autism spectrum as auties with two sub-types: those described by Kanner and those by Asperger. Some consider kanners and aspies as two distinct groups. My take is they are different only by degree of exhibiting differences from NTs in communication, social interaction, and focused interests, and are therefore not distinctly different labels. I think that’s why people will sometimes get a change in dx from autie (kanners) to aspie as their communication skills improve. Other diagnoses that are sometimes put under this umbrella are NOS, NLD, Retts, CDD, and occasionally even ADHD, tourettes, and bipolar. What do you think?
Janet,
I couldn’t agree more with everything you wrote. From all that I have read from others in this adult workgroup, it appears that the top priorities are 1) more opportunities for those on the spectrum to get to know themselves better via social and other opportunities to get to know others on the spectrum (statewise!); 2) more education of those who live and work with those on the spectrum (parents, educators, therapists, counselors, doctors, etc) on what it truly means to be autistic from an autistic perspective; 3) more government and medical services for ALL school-age children on the spectrum (currently an Asperger diagnosis gets little if any support)…after all we can’t work on adult issues if we don’t get help where it is most needed, before reaching adulthood; 4) better transition support for those 14 years of age on the spectrum within the school system; and 5) a minimum of 2 hours of ongoing employment and/or daily living support (via private or governmental services) for those adults diagnosed on the spectrum to enable them to funtion, and maintain that level of functioning, in a world within which they can not compete without such supports.
Should these be our stated goals for this group? Are there any that I have forgotten? Thank you so much Sharon, Susan and Janet for your input. I will keep trying to lure more adults to this workgroup so that we can get even more input.
Sue
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Welcome! I would be pleased to have you as a regular visitor. Sue