Why Districts Are Spending More Money Now to Ensure Students with Autism Spend Less Time on the Bus in the Next School Year

By Lisa J. Hudson

A growing numbers of school districts in the Westmoreland County, Pa., region are establishing classrooms within their schools designed specifically for students with autism. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review attributes the increase in the number of schools trying this strategy to, "changing interpretations of education law (that) are pushing public schools to educate every student closer to home."

A few of the school officials interviewed for the Aug. 2 article also specifically cite the fact that students with autism attending schools closer to home will spend less time on school buses, which they see as a benefit.

The initial costs to set up a new, autism-specific classroom for as few as three to four students can be expensive. For example, a new kindergarten and first grade classroom at the Southmoreland Primary Center will cost up to $90,000 in the initial year for salary, benefits and special equipment, notes the paper. However, John Molnar, administrative assistant in the Southmoreland School District, says that compared to the cost of sending those students outside the district, it will in the long run be more cost effective to have them stay local. Additionally, Molnar notes, "What we're trying to do is get our youngest kids off the buses."

"It's a benefit to the taxpayers to educate these students in the district," notes Margaret Zimmer, the director of pupil services for the Norwin School District in commenting on the decision to establish a new classroom for seven severely autistic elementary students in the district.

Zimmer also told the paper the new class will allow the students to spend less time on buses and give them more exposure to their non-autistic peers.

Breathe Easy, Ye Who Rely on Medicaid Reimbursements

So said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius when she rescinded a final rule that would have taken the . As governor of Kansas, keeping Medicaid alive was one of Sebelius' major platforms, according to OntheIssues.org.

Sebelius warned that neither Congress nor the Bush administration planned to extend a one-time increase in Medicaid funding. If the emergency aid is not renewed, Kansas will be forced to cut its Medicaid budget. Sebelius also complained that federal officials have slowed payments to the states in the wake of Medicare and Medicaid reform efforts. If states are forced to cut Medicaid budgets, numbers of uninsured are sure to increase.

The issue was raised back in September of 2007 when then HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt proposed schools be stripped of federal and state reimbursements of Medicaid-eligible reimbursement costs, such as transporting some students to and from therapy sessions and doctor visits, after the Government Accoutability Office discovered some $3.5 billion in fraudulent claims over the previous five years.

Fraud might be the correct term to use in some cases, but certainly not all, as many cases, some involving schools turned out to be paperwork errors. Still, $3.5 billion is $3.5 billion. As for some the alleged perpetrators, Sebelius and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that 53 people were indicted for schemes to submit more than $50 million in false Medicare claims.

But penalizing schools didn't sit well with Sebelius. In May, HHS and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a proposed rule to rescind the transportation rule as well as other that would limit the ability of states to issue reimbursements to agencies and medical services.

Video Reminds of the Importance Busing to School has for Special Needs Students

This from Peggy Burns, attorney and owner of Education Compliance Group, Inc., on an unintended lesson learned during the filming of her new training video "The Road to Compliance for Special Needs Drivers:"

"All of the scenes from 'The Road to Compliance for Special Needs Drivers' were filmed with actual drivers and transportation administrators and their children as the stars. Several of the children are, in fact, students with special needs. Despite a script that I had worked on for months, and excellent input from transportation professionals from whom I sought advice and review, our child actors stimulated new thoughts and points to emphasize. Joey is the boy who steals the scene about the broken wheelchair. His mom – in reality a driver trainer then with the Boulder Valley (Colo.) Public Schools – played the driver, and a friend of the family played his mom. We had neglected to remind Joey that this was all make believe. When he heard his mother say there would be no school for him that day, he became extremely upset, crying and pounding the wheelchair (which he does not, in fact, use in real life.) He provoked the realization that we can too easily overlook the sensitivity of our very vulnerable special riders, for whom school is special in ways we do not even realize.