New Project Aims To Address Growing Autism Numbers In Schools

A new school based autism education program is attempting to bring more awareness to the growing number of Mississippi students diagnosed with the developmental disability. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates that 1 out of every 150 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder, and the numbers of diagnosed cases have been climbing steadily in Mississippi for the past decade. The Gulf Coast Autism Project is a joint partnership between the Mississippi Department of Education and the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast, and will attempt to offer a multitude of services to train both teachers and parents about autism,

“We have more children coming to school with autism than we ever had in the past.”

Danita Munday is bureau director for autism and special education policy with the Mississippi Department of Education. She says the project is necessary because many teachers never received training on autism,

“So we need to get them up to speed on the research around autism and how to deliver research based, evidence based strategies and practices to kids and the young adults that are coming out of school that are going to be teaching kids with autism to get them ready.”

Tim Morse, an associate professor at USM Gulf Coast says while training teachers is critical, teaching parents is also essential component,

“You know we are naturally set up to train teachers that is our mission at the university, but I think a void we can really fill is to bring the parents here, and to work with them and show them here’s what you should look for. Here’s the questions you should ask. The phrase I use is our children will do better when our adults can do better.”

The new autism project will also design a school program to provide free, public education for children with autism. The project will receive 1.3 million dollars in federal funding over three years.