| The costs of educating Autism kids is a huge burden | | | | other transportation costs of the school districts. |
| on our school districts and it costs literally millions of | | | | Next, budget cuts often nix High School Freshman |
| dollars in each school year and many of these special | | | | sports, refuse to pay for uniforms, coaches or |
| educational need classes go on all-year overwhelming | | | | transportation, at a time when these regular kids need |
| budgets. Autism kids require all sorts of costly | | | | healthy extra-curricular activities to prevent ditching |
| evaluations and professionals such as psychologists, | | | | schools, drug use, teen pregnancy, truancy and gang |
| dieticians, neurologists, speech pathologists, pediatric | | | | violence. Thus, parents are fighting against one-another |
| occupational therapists, cognitive behavioral experts, | | | | for funds that support their own children. When things |
| disability consultants, and special education trained | | | | like sports are cut from the schools budgets parents |
| teachers w/assistants often 1 additional for every 5-8 | | | | of sport kids complain and point to the costs of special |
| students. | | | | ed. |
| Many professionals believe that to properly educate | | | | We need to find the funds and budget monies needed |
| an Autistic child correctly takes 20-hours of | | | | for both, Autism kids should not be thrown under the |
| one-on-one help per week, critics of such expenditures | | | | bus. Proper education and treatments now will pay off |
| often say; "who is paying for it?" To make matters | | | | later in lower costs to taxpayers and society, as |
| worse when diesel fuel prices go up, the cost to | | | | Autistic kids grow into full self-functioning adults, we |
| transport these kids skyrockets too, along with the | | | | need to be thinking here. We need more solutions. |