Mom pleased with support of autistic student

When Jill Mitchell first met with Yuma Elementary District 1 to inquire about services available for her autistic son, she was prepared to fight for them.

Mitchell, who moved to Yuma from Woodland Park, Colo., last summer, said services for her son Connor, 10, were not optional - she said she has read books and attended conferences and knows what works.

But despite some criticisms she had heard about special education programs at the district, Mitchell was pleased with what she found. "The fabulous thing about District 1 is that I didn't need to fight because they agreed on everything," she said.

The Arizona Department of Education audited Yuma Elementary School District 1 in October after a complaint was filed by a parent. The audit noted that 29 percent of special education teachers have not met the Highly Qualified standard in the subject area they are assigned to teach as mandated under the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. And there are four positions currently filled by long-term substitutes.  

Mitchell said she knew that her son needed a paraprofessional "and without blinking an eye, they agreed."

A paraprofessional is a trained aide who spends all of their time with a disabled student while they are at school. After 8-1/2 years of therapy, diet and supplemental vitamins, Connor is now considered a "high functional autistic," Mitchell said.

"He walks and talks and does his homework, but he still has emotional and behavioral issues associated with autism. So he needs to have constant supervision to be successful."

Mitchell's husband, now a civil engineer at Yuma Proving Ground, had been self-employed. But because his business was keeping him from home, they moved to find a job opportunity in a sunnier climate with hopes of a better quality of life.

Initially, Mitchell noticed that parents had a negative view of how school districts handled autism. She found many parents who were criticizing their school's approach. This is because a diagnosis of autism is new and the rates are skyrocketing, she said.

Yet negative comments did not discourage her because she never was content to drop off her son at school and expect them to do all the work, Mitchell said.

Despite Connor's disability, he is participating in a regular fourth-grade classroom at Sunrise Elementary School. One of the initiatives the school takes that is especially helpful is the "lunch bunch" break period when Connor, his paraprofessional and two other classmates get together.

They not only enjoy sharing their meal, but it is an opportunity for Connor to work on his conversational and social skills in a small group setting while all 32 of his classmates take turns dining with him.

By having all the children rotate turns sharing quality time with Connor, none of them feels left out of the fun, and they have the chance to get better acquainted. Even before he arrived for the school year, District 1 had a counselor meet with Connor's class to explain how a child with autism is different but they can still be friends, Mitchell said.

"That made a difference in his being integrated into a regular classroom because now when he showed up, he was accepted by everyone."

Connor is now performing grade-level work, but that requires a lot of effort because he still has a lot of issues to overcome every day, Mitchell said. But, she noted, there is one type of therapy called applied behavioral analysis (ABA) that works better than others.

When Mitchell discovered Connor's paraprofessional lacked this background, she appealed to District 1, which had Connor's paraprofessional trained in ABA at Alice Byrne School. Mitchell's only complaint is that not enough teachers receive this specific professional development and the state needs to pass more bonds to fund this.

"I think parents ultimately got to take the responsibility for their own child and not blame the schools because District 1 has done an excellent job," she said.

In a previous Yuma Sun story, Darwin Stiffler, District 1 superintendent, said only 16 teachers out of nearly 60 special education instructors must meet additional requirements. He said ADE's report recognized that the teachers are certified in special education.

But ADE is adding new obligations that were not compulsory until now in order to meet the Highly Qualified standard. The 16 teachers must pass the Arizona Education Proficiency Assessment (AEPA), which evaluates general education knowledge, Stiffler said.

He said District 1 will comply with helping teachers prepare for the AEPA by providing professional development and reimbursing teachers for the exam expense.