Best autism special education program in NYC public schools, updated 1/6/09

December 2, 12:29 PMNY Schools ExaminerKathleen Byrne

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NYC autism parents rave about ASD Nest, a public school, special education inclusion program for ASD children:
 

I am in love with my son’s new school. It’s both a schoolgirl crush and real, ripe, grown-up love: I often find myself smiling for no particular reason, even as this mature, substantive stabilizing force eases me into a good night’s sleep.
–Marni Goltsman, insideschools.com

Along with a team of NYC eductors, including District 15 Superindendent Carmen Farina, Hunter College Professor Shirley Cohen developed ASD Nest based on the RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) model pioneered by Dr. Steven Gutstein. RDI is a behavioral intervention that encourages ASD children to bond emotionally with others. It tries to help with the finer points of socialization, such as understanding irony and jokes, and having emotional references with which to interpret a new social situation—all things in which high-functioning autistic children have deficits.

In kindergarten, class size is limited to 12 students with 2 teachers: 8 general education and 4 special education children; 1 special education and 1 general education teacher. Grades 1, 2 and 3 class sizes are 16. After grade 3, the classes get larger—18 kids.  In addition to 11 elementary ASD Nest programs throughout the city, there are programs at a middle school in Brooklyn and a high school in Queens.

General education parents love ASD Nest, too, for its small class sizes and excellent student-teacher ratios. The ASD Nest program is not to be confused with NEST+M, a public school for gifted children on the lower east side of Manhattan.

For the few, coveted special education spots at ASD Nest, administrators seek children with a DoE classification of autism who score within a specific ADOS range and are above a specific number on the Stanford-Binet I.Q. test. All children are required to complete the regular NYC schools curriculum, while the ASD kids receive a specialized therapy within the classroom setting.

The word on the street about ASD Nest is that not enough parents know about it; there’s a program in Brooklyn that  has only 2 ASD children because there weren’t enough appropriate applicants.

Update 1/6/09: For a list of host schools and their contacts, click here: ASD Nest host schools and contacts.
For a DoE brochure, click here.

Update 1/2/09: I recently received this comment from someone closely connected to the ASD Nest program:

Kathleen -- First, thanks for this great blog! There are some out of date or incorrect statements in the post that I would like to correct.

1. Nest program class size from grades 1 to 3 is 16, with larger class size after grade 3. There are no paraprofessionals assigned to individual children ("IEP" para's) or to the program (e.g., "12:1:1" para's). In this way, the cost of the program is no more than other public school inclusion programs for similar children and less than for private school.

2. There is, at the moment, no shortage of seats. As the program becomes better known and more established, the identified need increases, and the Dept of Ed opens more seats/programs.

3. There are about 75 children with ASD in kindergarten programs this year, and about 160 in grades 1 - 8, in 14 elementary schools and 1 middle school.

4. The program in Brooklyn that you referred to that had only two children now has four.

5. Criteria for placement in this program are that the child must meet the New York State definition of "autism" (as determined by the ADOS assessment) and must be capable of accessing GRADE-LEVEL academic curriculum, if given the support available in this program. Generally speaking, that means average cognitive and language abilities, with mild to moderate delay in social functioning and mild to moderate challenging behaviors.

6. One major vehicle for therapeutic change used in the Nest program is called "SDI" or Social DEvelopment Intervention, which takes place throughout the day. In addition, kindergarteners have a 45-minute period of "focused SDI time" every day (three times per week for higher grades). SDI incorporates the insights of Steven Gutstein and others into a curriculum that promotes the areas of social and relational development these children need, and was primarily developed by Susan Brennan, a speech pathologist.

7. No child is pulled out every day for 45 minutes. In fact, "pull-outs" are avoided whenever possible. Children who need additional speech/language or OT services -- beyond that offered by the classroom teachers or via SDI focus time -- usually have individual "push-in" services once or twice per week.

8. Dr. Cohen is indeed the developer of the program's curriculum, but the model itself was conceptualized and developed by a team of New York City educators (led by District 15 Supt. Carmen Farina) in Brooklyn in 2002-3, and is continually being refined by Dr. Cohen, Susan Brennan, several expert behaviorists and the talented principals, teachers and therapists of the NYC Dept of Ed who work with these children every day. Dorothy Siegel of NYU has facilitated that process, and Linda Wernikoff and her staff at the Office of Special Education Initiatives have nurtured the program since its inception. It has been and remains a collaborative effort among all involved.