Six-year-old Armando is learning to count to 20 as part of a personalized lesson at the Child Study Center in Fort Worth.
“Thirteen… 14…15…19?” Armando counted out loud.
“No, try again. What comes after 15?” Armando’s one-on-one instructor asked.
The Child Study Center (CSC) is one of six Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) funded sites that provides Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to autistic children.
“The intervention is catered to children for their specific needs. For some we are working on things like expressive and receptive language development, with other children we may work on behavioral or self-injurious behavior,” CSC Autism Service Line Coordinator Matt Robison said. “We also work on feeding programs and also some self-help skills.”
Armando has been receiving ABA for a year and a half. He used to be unable to function in the classroom setting, but recent testing has revealed significant improvement. His teachers are hopeful that he may one day be able to function on par with his age group.
However, in the proposed 2011 state budget, the state Senate plans to cut the funding for the DARS program in half, and the Texas House proposal would cut the program entirely.
If the budget is approved, autistic children like Armando will lose access to ABA services near the end of the summer.
“We will have to shut it down at the end of August. We will try to transition the kids, but unfortunately there rarely is a better option,” Director of the Center for Policy and Innovation David Hagerla said. “If it is cut in half, we will have to reduce the number of contractors.”
Currently, the DARS program receives $6.6 million from the Texas government to fund these service options.
So far the pilot program is only available in the Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin areas.
The centers that have received funding must service large spheres of interest. Fort Worth’s Child Study Center provides ABA therapy to children in 63 counties.
Last year, 232 children were enrolled in the intensive program statewide.
“If the current proposal passes, families will have to try to find these services elsewhere,” Hagerla said. “In the past this has been difficult because they couldn’t locate them or they were cost prohibited because insurance doesn’t cover ABA.”
Doreen Schaefer’s son Brian was diagnosed with moderate autism and mental retardation. He is now 24 years old and has received services for the past 14 years.
When Brian was a child, the ABA program did not exist; however, his mother credits state-funded home and community services with any success Brian has had. She believes cutting services like ABA will harm the autistic community as a whole.
“Without the home and community services program, he would sit at home not doing much and it would not be a good situation,” Schaeffer said. “I would not able to work because I would have to stay home with him.”
Although the state legislature wants to end funding as a way to cut costs and lower the deficit, a recent study by Chasson, Harris and Neely shows that in the long run the DARS program saves the state money.
According to their estimates, the state of Texas would save $208,500 per child across 18 years of education. If applied to the 10,000 children with autism in the state, Texas would save a total of $2.09 billion.
The DARS program helps prevent autistic children from having to use expensive medical treatments or be placed in state-funded institutions.
“People want to keep their disabled children at home with them and not have community services force some families to place their children in institutions,” Schaefer said. “All people, regardless of disability, deserve the opportunity for a full life, to be with their family, and in their community.”
