Autism services transfer to DOE in July
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
Lawmakers yesterday raised questions about a plan to transfer services for autistic children from the Department of Health to the public schools, and pressed educators to communicate better with parents about the coming changes.
About 550 autistic children will start receiving services from the Department of Education in July.
But parents have raised questions about possible changes in the level of care and what will be done to make sure their children don't have to switch to a new team of caregivers. Autistic children often have a particular preference for routines and schedules and have adverse reactions to new people and situations.
The joint Senate-House Felix Task Force met yesterday to hear details of the transfer and the fate of a controversial contract for services.
Concerns over autism services have been the latest bump in the road as the DOE takes charge of what has been the Health Department's responsibility.
Under the Felix consent decree, which stemmed from a 1993 federal class-action lawsuit that accused the state of ignoring the needs of mentally disabled children, there has been a build-up of services in the public schools for special-needs children.
The DOH will continue to work with about 2,000 Hawai'i schoolchildren with intensive mental health needs, but officials say there is no reason why services for autistic children shouldn't move to the school system.
"There's no question that these autistic services are best supported through the DOE," said state Health Director Bruce Anderson. "These kids are not mentally ill. I think the DOH historically jumped in and provided these services, but the appropriate place is the DOE. It's going to entail building supports in the DOE that don't exist today."
Bob Campbell, director of the DOE office of program support and development, said the department has already worked out contract extensions with 13 of 18 service providers the DOH had worked with. Unless agencies and care providers don't want to work with the DOE or a particular child, families should be reassured that they will be able to keep the same therapists and therapeutic aides who have worked with their children. That's been the number one transition concern of most parents.
"There are no transition problems that we have not been able to address," Campbell said.
But parents have argued that in recent Individual Education Plan meetings, where school officials meet with families to decide the level of care needed for a child, the schools are downgrading the type of services that a student will receive. The DOE is getting about $10.8 million to provide autism services in the next fiscal year, plus about $1.3 million to help build the infrastructure for autism, while the DOH spent about $19 million last year for autism services.
"That's the heart of it," said Laura Cook, president of the Hawai'i Autism Resource Team. "The DOE will have half the money. How are they going to do this?"
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability whose symptoms include slow social and physical development, problems with communication, abnormal responses to sensations and abnormal ways of relating to people, ideas and events.
Lawmakers focused on communication with parents and ways to measure student progress. "You can understand that there would be a lot of fear out there," said Sen. Bob Hogue, R-24th (Kane'ohe, Kailua).
Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland pointed to a letter from the DOE that tells parents to call the district office if they didn't know who their new contact at the DOE will be starting with the July transfer. Chun Oakland, D-14th (Palama, 'Alewa Heights), said that giving a name to families along with a phone number would have been better.
"I think you folks would know firsthand who they are," she told educators.
Lawmakers also pressed for some way to measure the extent to which the DOE is communicating with parents.
Rep. Guy Ontai, R-39th (Wheeler, Mililani) asked for a "batting average" of how many families had been contacted regarding the transfer, but education officials said they had no numbers for their progress.
"It's hard to tell sometimes whether we've got a few dissatisfied parents making a lot of noise or a lot of dissatisfied parents," Ontai said.
At the end of May, about 150 parents and care providers signed on to a letter to Superintendent Pat Hamamoto that outlined their concerns about the transition and a controversial contract. The letter was circulated at the Legislature.
Hamamoto this month placed a controversial contract for autism services on hold. The contract awarded by the DOE to the Alaka'i Na Keiki agency was being protested under the department's administrative rules by other agencies not awarded the contract.
The DOE will rebid and wait until July 2003 to start a new contract, Campbell said.
A second letter of parent concerns went to Hamamoto on Monday, with an additional 55 signatures from people who live from Wai'anae to Makakilo.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
