Vol, 7, No. 18: May 12, 2008		Get SEAchange by email

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4. National autism program taps DPI and Wisconsin districts

The Bonduel, Somerset, and Verona school districts and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction are among the first partners in an innovative national effort to improve autism education.

The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders has identified teaching practices proven to be effective for students with autism. The center is working with partners in Wisconsin, Indiana, and New Mexico to implement these evidence-based practices in model-site classrooms, affording the opportunity to study real-world effectiveness of the practices.

An eventual aim of the project is to increase the number of teachers and administrators using effective autism education methods. Part of the DPI's role is to facilitate new autism-related professional development opportunities for educators around Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services is also a partner in the project; that agency is working with an early childhood program at Dover Street Elementary in Milwaukee, in the same way DPI and the three school districts are working together.

The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders is a project of three university entities—the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, and the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.

The universities will work with their current partners for two years (2008-09), after which other states will apply for future cycles.

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Last updated on 5/12/2008