AURORA — As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), many local school districts are $15,000 richer when it comes to helping students with autism.
Through a grant from the state, the Willamette Education Service District (ESD) had planned to fund trainings and workshops for autism educators. But nearly a month before the grant money had to be used up, they had so much left over, they awarded $15,000 to local school districts, which had to spend the money toward autism by July 1.
Sharon Lohse, the director of special programs in the North Marion School District said they also received a $1,500 supply grant strictly for autistic students.
“One is a training grant and provided money so that after they learn a bunch of great information on working with kids with autism they can buy supplies,” she said.
Lohse said a few of the things they have purchased include board games.
“They don’t understand about playing games and taking turns and sportsmanship and getting along with peers, which is essential in cooperative teams in school and beyond,” Lohse said.
Board games are included in the confines of the grant, she said.
“The stipulation is that we buy materials that are research-based, not just, ‘Oh, gee, that looks fun,’” she said.
“So they gave guidelines, here are things that you can buy. We aren’t going to buy things that aren’t going to be helpful.”
They also received learning software.
“We have software to make picture schedules for students who need that support and communication systems, all part of the autism spectrum,” she said.
This will improve the autism teaching and learning in the district for the 50 students with autism, Lohse said.
“The software program, we had one that we were sharing between three buildings, so teachers were having to run it back and forth,” she said, adding the program is not geared toward high school age. “Now it makes pictures for the kids and … we have three. It makes things easier for teachers and better for kids.”
Another purchase that will be helpful for the special education teachers is a classroom camera.
“When you need to record something, the teacher can have a remote control in their pocket and just press record, which is very helpful to evaluate how effective your teaching is,” Lohse said. “When you’re trying to figure out, this student is having a problem, what happened right before and maybe we can change something so we can avoid that in the future.”
They are only purchasing one camera and will move it from room to room, based on the need.
“Or we can set it up in the room where students are having a social skills group and they can … watch themselves and try to learn more appropriate ways to behave,” Lohse said.
In the Woodburn School District, Jennifer Spencer-Iiams, the director of student services, said they will hire an assistant for more one-on-one time with its roughly 60 students with autism, a population that continues to increase each year.
“We actually bought a fair number of curriculum and resources,” said Spencer-Iiams.
“We did a lot of books, a curriculum called ‘Super Skills’ that teaches social skills, some other books that really use a lot of picture techniques with students and resources for teachers. Then we used some of the money to have a couple folks attend a workshop on autism.”
They also purchased 10 iPads.
“We’re going to use them in life skills for those that are severely impacted with autism,” Spencer-Iiams said. “There are some very simple learning games in there for kids who can’t access a regular keyboard well and they can use a touch software piece.”
Spencer-Iiams said they were careful in choosing what equipment to purchase.
“There’s so much technology out there and it’s changed so quickly,” she said. “We don’t want to just throw technology at kids. Just because it’s a cool gadget doesn’t mean it’s a good thing to buy.”
But this grant has allowed Woodburn to increase its assistive technology, which can be anything from flash cards to voice recognition software.
“We’re trying to improve our process so teams have better guidance and (consider) when would a student need it and what kinds of technology can we have readily available for students to use.”
Now that the purchasing is done, the most challenging part of the process begins.
“We have a lot of training to do,” Spencer-Iiams said. “When you buy stuff that’s part of the work, then you’ve got to train folks and show them how to use it so they can teach effectively for students.”
The purchased equipment will undoubtedly improve education for students with autism, Lohse said.
“We’re just really excited to get the grants,” she said.
“It’s wonderful to have the extra money to spend, especially times like now when money is tight.”
