Autism is a complex neurodivergent disorder that can manifest in a wide array of symptoms and require different modifications and accommodations in school. Supporting individuals with autism isn't about finding a cure but about finding the best ways to assist each person.
Autism can be mild or severe. It has no connection to an individual's intelligence, although some research indicates individuals with autism are more likely to be gifted.
Autism affects approximately 1 in 36 children in the United States. While autism may make school a challenge for some students, approximately 44 percent of students with autism attend college.
For school, challenges with autism can arise at any point. A child with autism may not display the “traditional” symptoms, and schools may claim they aren't eligible for services. Schools may try to give all students with autism the same support and accommodations rather than focus on the individual student.
Once students enter college, the lack of structure can be a challenge. Schools also provide a lower level of support than K-12 schools, and otherwise qualified students may struggle with the minimal support colleges and universities provide.
Having autism is similar to having brown hair or blue eyes: It's simply one of a person's many characteristics. It has no bearing on personality or ability to succeed in school.
Individuals with disabilities have the right to an education free from discrimination. They also have a right to the services and accommodations they require to get an education.
If you or your student has autism and isn't receiving the support needed to reach educational goals, you need help. The Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm works with students and families in Delaware and throughout the United States to protect their right to an education. Call us at 888-535-3686 or fill out an online form today.
K-12 Students in Delaware
In Delaware, students with autism benefit from a statewide support system. The Delaware Autism Program (DAP) works with public schools throughout the state to provide services to students between 2 and 21 years old.
DAP provides the following services to students:
- Educational
- Vocational
- Respite
- Residential services
The focus is on direct teaching in a student's community and techniques with applied behavior analysis.
What is Autism?
Autism is an eligible disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA is the key federal law protecting K-12 students with eligible disabilities. The law also covers children who are too young to attend school and those who are either homeschooled or attend private school.
Public schools and agencies, in the case of some early education programs, must provide special education services to all toddlers, children, and teenagers who reside within a district's boundaries and have been diagnosed with autism.
Delaware defines autism as:
- A developmental disability that significantly affects
- Verbal and nonverbal communication
- Social interaction
- A disability that's usually evident before a child turns three
A child who is diagnosed with autism before age three can begin receiving service immediately. On the flip side, that a child isn't diagnosed with autism at age three doesn't mean they don't have autism. Some disabilities may not show up until a certain point in school, or a child may not show the “expected” sign of autism, meaning it may take longer to be evaluated.
Signs of Autism
Delaware provides a list of behaviors that schools and parents should use when diagnosing autism. Even if a child has an autism diagnosis from a doctor, schools will generally complete a different assessment. This assessment helps determine what services and support a student should receive as part of their Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
- Regular or repeated impairments in social communication and social interaction. These generally manifest in more than one area or situation.
- Difficulty reciprocating social or emotional acts
- Difficulty in understanding non-verbal communication as part of social interactions
- Difficulty in developing, maintaining, or understanding relationships
- Regular, limited, and repetitive patterns of behavior, characteristics, interests, or activities. These patterns aren't appropriate for a child's age or level of development.
- Stereotyped or repetitive movements, speech patterns, or use of objects
- Dislike of change and inflexible adherence to routines and/or repetitive patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior
- An intense focus on highly restricted, fixated interests
- Sensory difficulties, having either an unusually high or low reaction to their environment
The above behaviors or patterns affect significant areas of life and daily functioning and occur with a variety of people in different tasks and settings
At least one of the above behaviors or patterns must affect a child's academic performance.
One of the challenges with autism is that such lists don't necessarily capture all of the potential characteristics of autism.
For example, research increasingly shows that girls manifest autism differently than boys. Many of these lists of how to identify autism focus on how the disorder manifests in boys rather than girls.
What this means is that girls with autism may not be diagnosed because they don't meet the expected criteria for autism. If parents or guardians believe a girl has autism, they should arrange to meet with school officials to discuss whether and how the school considers these differences when assessing students.
Autism-Specific Eligibility Criteria
Delaware has general criteria for determining whether students are eligible for special education services. The state also has criteria specific to disabilities.
For autism, Delaware includes the following in all evaluations for autism:
- Specialized assessment tools that relate to the state's autism classification
- Observations of a child in both structured and unstructured environments
Essentially, school districts must be able to connect a student's behavior to the above-listed criteria. Assessments also need to include not just testing a child but also witnessing a child's behavior in different settings.
For example, when assessing a toddler, one part of the evaluation may include observing the child at home or in another environment where the child is generally comfortable. Especially for children with autism, a strange environment or place may be upsetting and make it difficult to get an accurate assessment.
Families should keep in mind that evaluations matter not just for determining if a child has a disability but also for the services a child will receive. Incomplete assessments may still result in a child being diagnosed with autism, but without a complete understanding of a child's manifestation of autism, any special education services, modifications, or accommodations a student receives may not adequately support them.
Revisions and Reevaluations
IDEA allows parents and guardians to schedule a meeting to discuss a student's IEP at any point during a school year in addition to the annual review meeting. Addressing potential problems with an IEP, including whether it's being fully implemented or if it's still effective, as soon as possible can help minimize the disruption to a student's education.
IDEA also requires reassessments every three years. While schools and families can agree to waive these reassessments, parents, and guardians should consider whether a reassessment would benefit their students. Maturing and growing may mean that an old assessment doesn't adequately capture a student's current progress or what type of support they need to succeed.
Schools cannot refuse to meet with families or reassess a student. If you believe your student's IEP is no longer effective, contact the Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm.
Early Intervention
Early intervention refers to children receiving special education services either in or before they attend preschool. These early efforts are especially important for toddlers and children with autism. Research has found that early intervention can have long-term, positive effects on toddlers with autism.
At young ages, children's brains are more plastic, which means they're better able to adapt as compared to the brains of older children. For children with autism, this plasticity means treatments are likely to have a more significant impact.
Appreciating the importance of early intervention for autism, the disorder is one of Delaware's birth mandate disabilities. This means that children who are diagnosed with autism have a right to services from birth. While diagnoses often don't occur until age 2, this mandate helps ensure parents and guardians can get help for their babies and toddlers as soon as they have a diagnosis.
Delaware has a flowchart that helps parents understand the birth mandate referral process for children who have autism. This guide also helps parents and guardians understand how to have their children assessed for autism.
Alex Eldreth Autism Education Act
In 2018, Delaware passed a law designed to update the Delaware Autism Program (DAP) and fund a three-year pilot project. The pilot project's goal was to show how the state could improve training for teachers about autism and make sure training is more easily available. The bill's name was the Alex Eldreth Autism Education Act.
Such updates were overdue, especially given the increase in students with autism in Delaware. In 1991, 152 students had been diagnosed with autism. By 2018, that number had jumped to over 2100.
While a bill was introduced in 2021 to extend the pilot program, the bill didn't leave the education committee. Had it passed, the bill would have expanded other support for students with autism.
District-Specific Programs
While the state does have the DAP program, each district still has its own special education services. That another district offers a program or service doesn't mean a district must provide that same program or service. The standard remains reasonable accommodations.
The Appoquinimink School District, for example, has RISE (Reaching Independence through Structured Education). This program, which lasts 12 months, works with students from preschool through high school. RISE provides different support depending on a student's age and grade level.
Indian River School District has a similar opportunity for students with autism. Its I.R.A.P. Program specifically works with students who have autism.
Colonial School District has the Itinerant Special Education Services. This program focuses on providing early intervention services and support to children in their natural environment, which is often their home.
Red Clay School District has the Meadowood program. Available at several of the district's schools, the program's goal is to help students develop the skills needed to live as independently as possible.
There's no one way to support a student with autism. That a school has a program for students with autism doesn't mean it's the best program for your student. It's not enough that a school has a program. The real question is how such a program works in practice and how it supports your students.
If your child's school district isn't providing effective accommodations, contact the Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm.
College and University Students in Delaware
For the majority of high school graduates, adjusting to college takes time. Students have more flexibility with their schedules and need to be self-advocates. There's less of a set routine.
For students with autism, these adjustments can be especially stressful. The challenge is that these changes occur along with a student losing their K-12 support system as well as potentially being away from home. They may experience anxiety and struggle with time management.
These issues can be compounded by the reduced support college and graduate students receive compared to K-12 students. IDEA no longer applies, and students no longer receive an IEP.
Students still receive support and protection through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This means colleges and universities must still provide support both in the classroom and also for academic activities.
One other change is that colleges and universities no longer have to identify or evaluate students with disabilities. Students now bear the whole cost for any assessments. They're also responsible for informing a school of their disability.
Disability Offices
Colleges and universities must provide accommodations for students with autism and other disabilities. While many of these services are similar, colleges and universities have more flexibility in what services they provide to students with autism.
When possible, students should meet with a college's disability services office before enrolling. During this meeting, students should ask about how to apply for accommodations, what documentation is required, and what accommodations a school provides.
That a college or university meets the legal requirements for disability support doesn't necessarily mean that a school is providing adequate support. College students with disabilities report that the legal requirements of support are the minimum and often insufficient to properly support students.
Requesting Accommodations
Each college or university sets its policies for how students with disabilities request accommodations. Some schools may use the same process for all students. Others may have different application and documentation requirements for different disabilities. Others, especially larger universities, may divide up disability accommodations by department or undergraduate versus graduate level.
Delaware State University provides a good example of the process for how students with autism request accommodations. DSU's Center for Disability Resources (CDR) uses the same steps for all students who apply for support:
- A student submits documentation based on CDR's documentation requirements
- A CDR representative reviews the student's application
- The student schedules an appointment to meet with a CDR representative
- If the CDR approves the requested accommodations, they will provide the student with an accommodation letter
- This letter lists a student's approved accommodations
- The student will present the accommodations letter to faculty members
- The student, not the CDR, is responsible for discussing accommodations with professors and other staff
Students must renew their accommodation letter every semester. They do this by completing and submitting the Renew My Accommodation Letter form online.
What is Reasonable?
One of the challenges with accommodations is that the term reasonable accommodations is open-ended. Schools can reject a requested accommodation for being too expensive or too much of a burden for staff. They may claim an accommodation would give a student with autism an advantage over their non-disabled classmates.
Some of these denials may be accurate. Others may be a school attempting to avoid their duty to support a student with autism.
While specific to Wilmington University, the school's six criteria for determining if an accommodation is reasonable is a good guide for all college and graduate students. These six criteria are:
- Is the requested accommodation based on a documented individual need for that accommodation?
- Does the requested accommodation allow for the most integrated experience possible?
- Does the requested accommodation fundamentally alter the essential requirements or essential nature of a course or program?
- If yes, a requested accommodation will likely be denied
- Does the requested accommodation pose a threat to personal or public safety?
- If yes, a requested accommodation will likely be denied
- Does the requested accommodation impose an undue financial or administrative burden on either the school or members of the school community?
- Is the reasonable accommodation of a personal nature, such as paying for an attendant?
As college and graduate students have the burden of requesting accommodations, they should be prepared to explain why a requested accommodation is reasonable.
Common Accommodations
While accommodations should support the individual student and their needs, many students do require similar accommodations. The University of Delaware lists some of the most common accommodations, several of which may benefit students with autism:
- Academic aids
- Alternative classroom and office arrangements
- Alternate formats
- Assistive technology
- Dining modifications
- Flexibility with attendance
- Housing modifications
- Interpreter or captioning services
- Notetaking support
- Scheduling and registration
- Testing accommodations
- Course substitution related to a disability
This list is specific to the University of Delaware's Office of Disability Support Service (DSS). Even if a student attends UD and requests one of the above accommodations, that doesn't guarantee they'll receive it.
Common accommodations, however, can be more difficult for a school to deny. Common or uncommon, if a school is denying you the accommodations necessary to allow you to benefit from your education, contact the Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm.
Grievance Process
Students may disagree with a disability service office's decision. They may believe an office incorrectly denied their request for accommodations or is offering accommodations that would be ineffective.
If and when students disagree with a disability service office's decisions, most colleges and universities have an established procedure for appealing these decisions. Most schools refer to it as a grievance process or procedure.
Some colleges or universities may initially handle an appeal within the disability services office. Others will immediately involve another department or member of the administration.
For example, students at Wilmington University who disagree with the Office of Student Accessibility Services will appeal to the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs. The Assistant Vice President will then conduct a meeting to consider the student's request.
Navigating the appeals or grievance process can be challenging. If you disagree with a school's decision, you need help to decide your next best step. Contact the Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm.
Spectrum Scholars
For students with autism who are admitted to the University of Delaware, they may want to apply for the Spectrum Scholars program.
Students who qualify for the program receive access to:
- Group-based workshops
- Support
- Drop-in coaching, both individualized and group
- Career development support
Connecting students with other university departments, such as Disability Support Services and the Office of Academic Enrichment
This support is different from what students may receive through the Disability Support Services office. Students with autism aren't required to join the program and the program caps participation.
Eligibility
Students must meet certain requirements to qualify for the Spectrum Scholars program. These criteria include:
- Offered admission to the University of Delaware into a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science program
- Diagnosed as having autism
- Interested or want to receive support through the Spectrum Scholars program
While students from all majors can apply, the eligibility requirements favor students in computer science, electrical engineering, or computer engineering. The program currently admits ten students annually.
The application window generally begins in January with interviews in April. Students should check the application requirements for each year.
Protect Your Future
Having autism shouldn't deprive a student of the chance to learn and benefit from an education. That a student requires modifications or accommodations to learn doesn't mean they can't succeed.
For students with autism, one of the challenges is that effective modifications and accommodations vary. Two individuals with similar characteristics of autism may require entirely different accommodations.
A student is more than having an autism diagnosis. Students are still individuals with goals, strengths, and talents that are unique to them. Accommodations should reflect this need for individual support.
That a student doesn't meet the expected traits of autism or has a high IQ doesn't mean they aren't autistic or don't require support in school. Unfortunately, school staff, even those who are well-meaning, may not understand these complexities.
If you or your child has autism, you have the right to an education with accommodations. Every student deserves the opportunity to fulfill their potential. For students with autism, that may only happen if they receive the support they not only need but have a right to by law.
The Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm works with students and families in Delaware and nationwide. We concentrate on education-focused solutions. Call us at 888-535-3686 or fill out an online form today.