Sarah Hite

Autism and Education in Oklahoma

Oklahoma legislation underwent new implementations during the beginning of 2016. In
April, new legislation requiring health insurers to cover the treatment of children with
autism was approved and returned to the House for deliberation.

House Bill 2962 would require coverage for the screening, diagnosis and treatment of
individuals younger than 9 years old who are potentially diagnosable as having autism
spectrum disorder, ASD. The new statutes would provide up to 25 hours a week and
$25,000 a year for children to have access to applied behavioral analysis, ABA.

Autism is a developmental disability, generally evident before age 3, significantly

affecting verbal and nonverbal communication, social interaction and adversely affecting
educational performance If a students educational performance is adversely affected
primarily because the student has an emotional disturbance, then the student does not
qualify under the category of autism, as defined by the Oklahoma State Department of
Educations Special Education Handbook.

Currently, Oklahoma is one of seven states in the nation that does not require insurance
providers to ensure coverage for children with autism. Oklahoma has also faced the
deepest educational budget cuts in the nation since the recession that began in 2008.

My son had speech through SoonerStart and went to school at 3, but ABA therapy
wasn't available at all. It wasn't even a realm of possibility for us. Early Foundations is a
wonderful program, but only a small handful get to join because of funding, said
Miranda Steffen, a teacher at the Oklahoma Autism Center for Early Foundations.

This year it was announced that the state is facing a $1.3 billion cut to the budget. State
agencies and school districts are facing severe cutbacks and trying to make ends meet.
The concurrency of budget cuts and the Senates new enactments, has parents and
professionals questioning Oklahomas ability to succeed in state-sponsored early
intervention programs for children with ASD.

The main focus of these interventions is to address the main areas of difficulty people
with autism face, centering on social-communication and social reciprocity, said Stuart
Godfrey, a child development specialist with Oklahomas federally-mandated early
intervention program, SoonerStart.

ABA is not a therapy limited to children with ASD, the applied behavioral techniques
help children with ADHD, dyslexia and children with developmental delay or defiance.
The HB 2962 would allow families access to more affordable behavioral science that
helps an individual with social skills, communication and reading. The application of
applied behavior analysis can help bring families together by helping children build
communication skills that may otherwise be lost.

I do hope that this will encourage the development of new programs in the state that
are accessible by more people. Currently there is our program SoonerStart We also
partner with the Oklahoma Autism Center for Early Foundations. The Oklahoma Autism
Network also does a great job of providing services through their Connected Kids
program, as well as providing training for parents and professionals (most notably the
State Autism Conference), said Godfrey, in reference to HB 2962.

It is not uncommon for individuals with ASD or the other disorders to be isolated due to
their social interactions.

Our problem was never the insurance companies. Our problem was there were never
service providers. We were just starting to get into, how do we educate people with
autism?, said Susan Dawson-OBrien, a mother of a teenager with ASD and former
professor of mass communication and adviser of the15th Street News at Rose State
College.

The isolation can frequently lead to a negative impact in educational careers.

We never had a problem with insurance covering things, mostly because we didn't hit
up insurance for a lot of stuff, because there weren't programs. Speech therapy was
done through school, and good luck finding a speech therapist who will come to the
house to work with them, said Dawson-OBrien.

Older children who are diagnosed with ASD may have lost their opportunity by not
having access to early intervention and behavioral analysis.

Spencer was born in 1998, so he had 10 years of, What do we do? We looked into
ABA when he was in grade school and nobody did it, she said. We heard about ABA,

we wanted to try it. We wanted to do this intensive therapy and he was never able to do
it. It was too early. It hadnt been invented yet, if you will, Dawson-OBrien said.

As autistic children mature and their brains develop, it is not unusual that they develop
accompanying medical disorders. HB 2962 may help to mend the barrier of medical
accommodations in relation to behavioral disorders. The bills requirements of $25,000
could potentially be applied to medical expenses that may accompany ASD.

Notwithstanding the existing programs, the new legislation may help stimulate the
creation of more communicable arrangements, not just for children with autism, but for
their families as well. Although prevalent, autism continues to be a disorder that tends to
isolate the individual as well as their loved ones.

Currently, autism insurance reform is being discussed at the Capitol. We have tried for
years, but only this year has it moved forward and really has a chance to help kids in
this state. That means older kids like mine didn't get the early intervention, Steffen said.

To date, there has been no legislation in Oklahoma, specifically involving education and
autism. The National Conference of State Legislatures archive goes as far back as

2008. Its website allows visitors to view the autism legislation database, providing
access to enactments searchable by state, sponsors, topic and even the specific bill
number.

Oklahoma has the potential to develop new educational legislation for children with
ASD, due to the platform of discussion introduced by HB 2962.

Insurance coverage will help develop programs for kids with ASD, because ABA
therapy will finally be covered in our state, said Steffen.

Considering the current financial state of Oklahoma, the development of programs may
turn out to be a work in progress. However, the development of similar bills can help to
produce more publicly-sponsored programs.

With the right ABA program and other early intervention, the child has a better chance
to gain skills that may otherwise be a challenge. Likewise, older children will also be
able to gain skills that may help with cognitive, behavioral and social delays, Steffen
said.

As the mother of an autistic son, Steffen spoke about her personal and professional past
experiences in comparison to Oklahomas current stance on autism.

I think Oklahoma has a long way to go in terms of education and resources, she said.
I have seen major strides since 2007, when Aiden was diagnosed, but we are still
behind the rest of the country.

If HB 2962 is passed, Oklahoma can help to rebuild communication interconnections

from specialists to families in need of care.

Until this year, I didn't realize parents paid out-of-pocket for the diagnosis and for early
intervention, said Amanda Miller, an early interventionist with the Oklahoma Autism
Center for Early Foundations.

As the system currently operates, there are not affordable communication networks set
up for families to inform themselves and provide the best therapy for their children.

Early intervention and ABA therapy help give non-verbal children with autism a way to
communicate. I think Oklahoma has needed to address insurance for children with
autism for a long time, Miller said.

Professionals are missing opportunities to reach children with ASD in Oklahoma

because of lack of funding or access. Families are losing the chance to know their child
in relation to their disorders and how to best help them.
I do know that there are children who are not getting early intervention because of
financial reasons, said Miller.

Communication and social interaction is are vital aspects of functioning successfully in

society.

Parents and professionals may have the opportunity to repair and reconstruct an
educational support structure for autism in Oklahoma. In spite of cutbacks, Oklahomas
introduction of HB 2962 may promote a new educational standard, as well.