RIH Passes On Autism Program

Due to a tight deadline and “given the questions raised, the district will not move forward” with the Bergen County Special Services Autistic Program for the 2011-12 school year, Superintendent of Schools Dr. C. Lauren Schoen told the Ramapo Indian Hills board of Education Monday night.

"There are some questions and I would like the opportunity to research that further," Dr. Schoen said, adding that Bergen County Special Services Autistic Program "needs an answer, not that they were pressuring me,” she told the audience,  “but if not here those students need to go somewhere else."

The BCSS approached the district six to eight weeks ago with the proposal to bring a high school level autism program to the district. BCSS currently has a K-8 autism program in Franklin Lakes.

Eight students enrolled in the Franklin Avenue Middle School program will be starting high school in the fall. And within the next three years, five more students will be entering high school.

“Students are moving forward and need a place to go,” Schoen said. She had previously said that the district would rather “be responsible for educating our autistic students” than send them out-of-district.

The program would have made for a continuum of services from the kindergarten to high school graduation, and would be the first high school program in the area to be dedicated specifically to teaching students with autism.

But there were still lingering issues that prevented the district from committing to the program.

At the previous meeting, school board members expressed concerns that the program would only be for one school year and that the decision needed time to consider all possible repercussions of a short-term contract.

Board member Thomas Bunting previously said that it wouldn’t be fair to children in the program to discontinue it after a year.

“I wouldn’t want to do that,” he said.

Other members worried about the cost associated with educating special needs students in the FLOW area, which is more than $60,000 per year. Board member Ira Belsky, along with Bunting, said the district may become a “magnet” for families with autistic children, placing a high financial burden on the district.

However, the program would have generated $66,850 in revenue for the district, which would offset the $65,000 tuition cost for the one district student who could enroll in the proposed program, and it would cut transportation costs.

A school for students with autism currently exists in Oakland, however, tuition at the private school is upwards of $30,000 or more per placement, per year, than the BCSS program.