Grants aim to improve autism education

School districts in mid-Michigan and on the state's east side received grants to improve autism education from the Statewide Autism Resources and Training Project (START) at Grand Valley State University.

Clare-Gladwin Regional Education Service District and the Oceana ISD, located in central Michigan, and Sanilac and St. Clair intermediate school districts, serving school districts in Michigan's thumb area, were named Intensive Training Sites. Under that designation, teams of experts, coordinated by START, will visit sites throughout the year to train teachers, counselors, school psychologists, and others who work with students with autism.

Educational experts have identified about 5,000 Michigan students with autism.

Clare-Gladwin, Oceana, and Sanilac/St. Clair join five other intensive training sites named last year, the first year of grant funding through START. The five renewal training sites are Barry ISD, Hastings; Flint Community Schools, Flint; Grand Rapids Public Schools/Kent ISD; Roscommon ISD, Roscommon; seven Upper Peninsula ISDs, Marquette.

Amy Matthews, assistant psychology professor and START principal investigator, said the new sites were selected from eight applications. She said Clare-Gladwin has a strong adult autism program but currently has no staff members who are certified to teach autistic-impaired (AI) students. Sanilac/St. Clair employs one AI teacher consultant but listed more than 100 students in their service area diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder on their application. Training for staff members in Oceana will begin in January.

Maureen Ziegler, recently hired as an autism training and intervention specialist for GVSU's Autism Education Center, will work closely with the renewal training sites. Ziegler has a master's degree in special education and an educational specialist degree from Eastern Michigan University.

The START Program at GVSU was established in 2001 with a $1.25 million grant from the Michigan Department of Education to serve students with autism by supporting their schools and parents.


Gov. John Engler held a press conference in Grand Valley's DeVos Center
April 25 to discuss the signing of the state K-12 appropriations bill. That bill includes a $500,000 appropriation to GVSU's Autism Center program.