Autism Funding

With the economy in the tank, our investments evaporating, and the state budget deficit growing larger by the minute, our world seems to be in pretty dire straights right now. As recipients of state funding through our contracts with school districts and the Regional Centers, we at Morgan Autism Center feel in a particularly precarious situation. Programs and services for people with Developmental Disabilities are frequently viewed as an easy target for reductions in spending, and are certainly not a priority in the hierarchy of funding. So we are feeling more than a bit vulnerable as we carefully tiptoe our way through this fiscal minefield. As of today, no one seems to know how the state will reconcile its budgetary mess and what will be the ramifications for agencies and schools that rely on government funding. So, like everyone else, we are doing some belt tightening and eliminating anything that seems superfluous – though we never have much of that, even in better times!

In the meantime, and in spite of these challenges, we are continuing to work to provide our students and collaborative partners with the best services possible. A few things going on at MAC:
1) A new program with the Community School of Arts and Music, with the first phase an art class at the CSMA site in Mt. View. Our students look forward to both the art and the train ride to class. The second phase, a music class, started this winter and takes place here on our site.
2) A new collaborative effort with Kaiser Permanente in San Jose on our very successful conference, along with our continuing work with Santa Clara University.
3) A new partnership with Santa Cruz County Office of Education, working with their staff to develop their preschool classes and increase the capacity of their staff to implement effective teaching interventions with the SCCOE students.
4) A new relationship with the Santa Clara County school districts to provide workshops for both special education and regular education staff on understanding the learning style of people with autism.
5) A continuation of the reverse mainstreaming with several local schools: St, Martin’s, St. Nicholas, Harker School and Sacred Heart of the Nativity. This helps foster typical socialization opportunities for many of our students and provide the visiting students a chance to forge friendships.
6) Ongoing commitment with SJUSD to facilitate their autism classes from preschool to 5th grade, and offer assistance in program development through their Autism Advisory Committee.

So, while the rest of the world swirls around us, we’re keeping our noses to the grindstone and doing what we do best – provide our students with the most opportunities for success and share our ideas to help others do the same!