What Makes or Breaks an Autism School
September 6, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
A new school for autistic children, the Bankbridge Development Center, opens today, Thursday, September 6, in Deptford, New Jersey. So far some 175 students aged 3 to 21 will be going to school in the newly constructed $13 million, 52,000-square-foot building. Back in May of 2006, the Gloucester County Times heralded the building of the Center in no small part because it will save taxpayers about $1 million annually in tuition costs now incurred for educating the county’s autistic children in private schools. The September 5th Gloucester County Times notes that tuition is about $28,000.
The training that teachers and aides received is not mentioned, while the facilities are carefully described:
“the 20 classrooms are designed to minimize distractions to light, sound and touch. Every room also has an observation area attached so teachers and parents can monitor the students’ progress.
Paint colors and playground equipment were carefully selected and private rooms were made available for one-on-one speech or occupational therapy.
Family members will be able to participate in programs such as support groups, “recreational therapeutic activities, social groups and after hours care.”
My question is, as always: It is very good to hear about programs involving the entire family and about new facilities, but what kind of training, support, and supervision do the teachers, therapists and aides have? It’s the people who make (or break) an autism school, at least in the case of my son Charlie, rather than “specialized lighting, textures and bathroom accessibility” (as noted in a Gloucester County website).
A closing quote from Fred Keating, superintendent of Gloucester County Special Services School District, makes me wonder a bit more at the center:
“It’s not just a school, but a center offering holistic medicine.”
It makes one wonder if something “alternative” (as in “alternative medicine”) is afoot at the Bankbridge Center—-but there’s no alternative to good training and good teaching.
Typical, capital expenses are covered and touted but not labor.
You see this so many places, school being one of them. Smart blackboards, fresh paint in the classroom, new monkey bars… how about funding for training? Better yet, funding for an academic chair at the grade school level?
I have a friend who lives in NJ. I’ll ask her about this.
Here is the website for the center
converted due to length.
http://tinyurl.com/2zfvtf
Bright walls do not a classroom make,
Nor monkey bars a school;
Trained teachers and dedicated staff
Are what makes it really cool.
This is great!!
There is one here in Northern California..
It is located in Sacramento.
Someone told me that Dr. Temple Grandin helped consult with the development of the school .
It is called ABC school.