With a 15 percent increase in the number of autistic children in Hawai'i public schools every year, a Board of Education committee is concerned about whether the schools are providing the best services they can to those children.

"I still feel we're lacking some way to measure the quality of services," board member Garrett Toguchi said during a committee meeting yesterday to bring BOE members up to date on services for children with Autism spectrum disorder, which covers a range of developmental disabilities.

Board member Mary Cochran raised the possibility of outside reviews of the services.

But board member Denise Matsumoto, a preschool teacher, noted that "of all the disabilities, autism is the most challenging."

"You are always going to have people who aren't happy with the services," Matsumoto said. "But I know of three families with autistic children, and they're very happy with our system."

Hawai'i teachers receive some specialized training, and teachers who have specialized training are a key focus of recruiting efforts.

With a nationwide shortage of special education teachers — and the Hawai'i school system already missing 5 percent to 7 percent of the 2,041 it needed last year — there are continuing concerns about finding enough teachers with appropriate training.

The Department of Education is conducting pilot projects in the Windward and Central districts with the goal of having DOE employees, not contract service providers, work with children with autism.

But finding people for those jobs has been difficult.

While some changes have been under way, including empowering Sydney Freitas, director of the Hawai'i Center for the Deaf and the Blind, to recruit directly, there's no way to know yet if all positions will be filled.

"They've done a lot of good things to aggressively recruit," said Paul Ban, director of the Special Education Services branch. But he said there is "high burn-out" for teachers working in this area of education.

There could eventually be a cost saving, but the change could also give children more continuity with personnel, an important factor in serving children with this disorder.

Since 2001 the number of children identified with autism being served by the Hawai'i public schools has gone from 656 to 1,143, consistent with a nationwide increase in students identified with autism.

"All states are struggling with the same increases," said Debra Farmer, DOE administrator for special education.

While Hawai'i children receive services depending on their needs, the needs vary dramatically from one child to another.

"A teacher might have one student who has a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome (a mild form of autism) and is receiving all of his instruction in the general education classroom with some supports," Farmer said.

Meanwhile, another student also diagnosed as autistic, but also with mental retardation, may be in a self-contained classroom because he engages in harmful behavior such as head-banging.

"There is no typically autistic child," Farmer said.

"Each has to be taken individually. ... We're constantly assessing children. They change so rapidly."