URGENT FOR CALIFORNIA ABA CLIENTS

[Guest guest]

FYI -your letters are needed by 5pm TODAY!

· ACTION ALERT: FOR CALIFORNIA FAMILIES USING ABA TREATMENT

From Fellmeth, President, Families for Early Autism Treatment

in Sacramento.

Each of us MUST take the time to send an email and/or fax to the Ca.

Dept. of Education to oppose proposed changes to the Ed Code that

will render your in-home ABA programs or non-public school placements

illegal.

The details are explained in the letter below, which is the official

FEAT response. However, the CDE Rulemaking Coordinator, Deb Strain,

needs to be inundated with emails and faxes in opposition to these

amendments.

The deadline for public comment is Thursday Sept. 25 at 5 PM - Yes,

that is today, so you had better start writing now.

Attached you will find the official FEAT response, which you should

personalize for your situation. All of the pertinent contact info is

on the top. You can copy the address and the part titled " Urgent " and

the sentence for " I strongly object " . the rest put into your own

words. If all you can do is get out the part about objecting, that is

fine too.

This is serious - if this becomes the code, then only public school

programs will be allowed to provide services on your IEP. We suspect

that this amendment is another attempt by the SELPA's to get rid of

NPA and NPS's. They have tried it before and we defeated it them and

we will again...but only if each and every one of you sends your

opposition letter.

USE THIS LETTER TO WRITE/ FAX YOUR OWN -- NOW!

September 25, 2008

Via Email, Facsimile and U.S. Mail

Attn: Deb Strain, Rulemaking Coordinator

California Department of Education

1430 N Street

Sacramento, CA 95814

Fax:

regcomments@...

URGENT: Comment to proposed rulemaking: Regarding Non-Public Schools

and Agencies; proposed changes to Title 5 CCR Section 3065; Board of

Education meeting September 2008, Agenda item No. 13

Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT) strongly objects to

proposed changes to Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations,

Section 3065, that would revise the requirements for behavior

intervention personnel employed by non-public schools and agencies.

Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT) is a non- profit

organization of parents, educators, and other professionals that

provides advocacy, education and support to the autism community of

Northern California. We serve several thousand consumers, their

families and other interested parties; all at no cost.

CDE proposes to change Title 5 of the CCR, section 3065 (e) ( to

require all NPS and NPA behavior interventionists to complete 12

semester units of applied behavior analysis (ABA) from an institution

of higher learning. We have the following concerns regarding this

proposal:

1. If the proposed amendments to Section 3065 are adopted, the a

large number of the tutor staff who provide the direct ABA services

to children with autism through NPA's and NPA's, will no longer be

allowed to provide these behaviorally based interventions because

they are in process of obtaining these credits or have graduated with

BA/BS degrees in other areas of specialization and have received

their behavioral training on the job by M.A. or Ph.D. level

supervisors.

a. Thousands of children across California will be irreparably

damaged by the cessation of these proven, best practice ABA services

b. Adequate staff who would meet the proposed standard does not

currently exist and thus, the IEP's which mandate these services

would be out of compliance.

c. The ability for NPA/NPS staff to obtain the 12 semester units of

applied behavioral analysis from an institution of higher learning is

limited by the lack of programs available throughout the state.

d. The cost to the NPA/NPS or the individual to complete this

training is not built into the current contracts.

2. The methodology shown to be most effective for teaching children

with autism spectrum disorders and maintaining those gains is Applied

Behavior Analysis (ABA).

a. The research studies that proved the efficacy of the ABA approach

were conducted using primarily undergraduate tutors under the

supervision of M.A. and Ph.D. level staff with ABA training.

b. In practice, in the ABA in-home programs currently staffed by

NPA's and in the NPS's that use ABA techniques, tutors pursuing and

possessing B.A. or B.S. degrees have been used to implement the

behavioral strategies that are the basis of this approach. They are

supervised by Masters and/or Ph.D. level staff with an applied

behavioral analysis emphasis.

3. Responsible NPA and NPS providers already subscribe to the conduct

requirements of their field by using M.A./Ph.D. behaviorally trained

staff to design and supervise the behavioral intervention strategies

that their staff implements.

4. The language of the proposed amendment is designed for the primary

purpose of eliminating NPA and NPS options for children receiving

services under IDEA.

a. The same standard is not applied to the staffs of public schools,

which are only required to have a GED in the case of instructional

assistants or in the case of teachers, a teaching credential.

b. Instructional assistants are used in the public schools to

implement ABA interventions and yet have no specialized training

requirement, and are not required to be supervised by staff who have

any specialized ABA training or an M.A. or Ph.D. in the behavioral

analysis field.

c. Public school regular education inclusion classrooms are staffed

by teachers who are not required to have any knowledge of special

education, autism or applied behavior analysis and yet they implement

behavior intervention plans on a daily basis.

d. Public school special education teachers are only required to have

a credential, but are not required to have any autism training or

training in applied behavior analysis, and implement behavior plans

daily.

e. Public education administrators implement behavior intervention

plans and are not required to have any knowledge of ABA principles.

f. Persons who provide related services in the public school are not

required to have any training in applied behavior analysis and

implement behavior plans daily.

The proposed changes to Title 5, section 3065 of the CCR's do nothing

to further protect the students who receive behavioral intervention

services, because the higher requirements for training are only

applied to the non-public sector and not to the larger, public

education staff. Existing state law already protects students from

aversive behavioral techniques as does the code of ethics for

Behavior Analysts.

If these changes are adopted, school districts throughout the state

will be out of compliance with their IEPs and parents whose NPA or

NPS specialized autism services have been disrupted will file

complaints with the Federal Office of Special Education as well as

the CDE. All of these complaints will have to be investigated and

considerable time and money will be spent to resolve them. All of

this is unnecessary since parents are not complaining to CDE about

the quality of their NPA/NPS services. Instead, they are filing due

process claims against their public school for failing to provide the

same high quality of ABA intervention that the NPA/NPS's provide.

Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT), encourages the CDE to

drop the proposed changes to Title 5. Section 3065 with respect to

the requirement for behavioral intervention implementers to have 12

semester units of Applied Behavior Analysis from an institution of

higher learning. If the CDE does not do so, then the same

requirements must be mandated for all public education staff because

any of them might have contact with a child who has a behavioral

intervention plan. Failure to apply the same set of standards to

public and non-public entities simply reinforces our belief that the

fundamental purpose of this amendment is to prevent families from

obtaining NPA and NPS services in their IEP's.

Sincerely,

Fellmeth, President

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Families for Early Autism Treatment