• Hats Off To Columbus Area Support Group and Bartholomew Community School Corporation: Partnership
• Hats Off To Hamilton-Boone-Madison Special Services Cooperative: Movie Day
• Hats Off To South LaPorte County Special Education Cooperative and Autism Society of Central Indiana: Start a Walk in Your Community
• Hats Off To M.S.D. of Wayne Township: Creating Building Level Autism Teams
• Hats Off To Johnson County Special Services
• Hats Off To Switzerland County Middle School Autism Team
• Hats Off To MSD of Lawrence Township: Training via District Website
• Hats Off To MSD of Warren Township: S.A.F.E. Supporting Autism for Everyone
• Hats Off To MSD of Martinsville: Camp Discovery: A Place for Kids to Have Fun!
• Hats Off To An Autism Team Working in Indiana: First Responder Training
• Autism Teams: Building Capacity Across Indiana
• Hats Off to Noblesville Schools for Creating Training Classrooms: Using Evidence-Based Practices of Visual Supports and Work Systems
• Hats Off To Asperger Autism Group of Goshen
• Hats Off to East Centeral Indiana Autism Society of America Chapter: Interlock
• Hats Off To Greater Lafayette Area Special Services Autism Team

Autism Teams: Building Capacity Across Indiana

Contributed by Melissa Dubie

As of Spring 2004, the Indiana Resource Center for Autism (IRCA) has trained two hundred teams across the state of Indiana. (See the website at www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca for a complete listing of teams.) The status of teams differs widely across the state. Some have continued to flourish and others have disbanded. Last year, the Indiana Resource Center for Autism began to provide more intensive and direct outreach to these autism teams. Each year, newly trained teams create an action plan that describes the needs of students across the autism spectrum, staff working with these students, and strategies on how to address identified needs when they return to their districts. Educational consultants from IRCA are using these plans when visiting local autism teams as a base to start organizing newly trained teams.

Individual follow-up support is given to teams by staff from IRCA visiting their community to engage in staff dialogues, assist in creating a vision, provide feedback, and expand on the teams on-going knowledge. The teams that have flourished are confident in their skills to work with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). As a result, they are initiating professional development activities for other school personnel within their own communities. Professional development has included understanding the disability of autism, awareness of how it manifests itself, and the use of evidence-based practices. Many core teams that have been trained by IRCA, have trained individuals within their districts/cooperatives to create smaller teams within school buildings. This allows school personnel to provide immediate support, problem solve, and create strategies for individuals on the autism spectrum on the day it is needed.

For teams that have been stagnant or are just starting, they are learning how other districts around the state are educating personnel and family members. This meeting with an educational consultant from IRCA lasts usually two to three hours and is scheduled with core team members. During the meeting, team members view other district/cooperatives brochures, newsletters, and training ideas. In addition, some teams have gathered articles from IRCA’s website to create parent and teacher information packets. When a representative from IRCA visits school districts/cooperatives, current videos and materials available at the Indiana Institute’s Center for Disability Information and Referral library are shared and previewed before districts decide which materials to purchase. Next, the team shares the needs of students on the autism spectrum as a group and their ideas on how to meet those needs. A two-year plan is devised for the team to act upon. The team decides what resources they have within their own teams that can be utilized and the type of support that staff from IRCA can provide. Ongoing outreach is offered to autism teams throughout the year.

In upcoming editions of the IRCA Reporter individual autism teams from across the state will be highlighted. This issue focuses on Johnson County Special Services, Fort Wayne Community Schools, Cooperative School Services, and East Central Special Services District.

• Johnson County Special Services autism teams refer to themselves as the “ANTS” which stands for Autism Network TeamS. Their group created a brochure that is distributed to all school personnel in the fall that highlights on-going professional development opportunities. They have been providing training for administrators, teachers, and paraprofessionals for the last four years. In addition, they have trained personnel from the city fire departments, emergency medical services, police departments, Johnson County sheriff’s department, and Johnson County Memorial Hospital trauma team.
• Fort Wayne Community Schools created a group that includes general and special education staff, occupational and physical therapist, speech clinicians, a behavioral consultant, an administrator, and a parent. In the fall when a teacher has a student with ASD for the first time, members of the autism team meet with the staff to educate the group on strategies that have worked well for the individual student. In addition, on-going support is available throughout the year. This allows the teacher to feel supported and provides an avenue to ask questions and receive factual information.
• Cooperative School Services is a rural school corporation located in north/central Indiana. One of their teams is named WeCARE (West Central Autism Education Team). This team consists of a parent, general education teacher, counselor, occupational therapist, school psychologist, and a special education teacher. One team member is assigned to each student and obtains information from teachers for their monthly meetings. At their meetings, they discuss issues and brainstorm solutions. The solutions have ranged from monthly luncheons with individual students to providing in-service opportunities for staff.
• East Central Special Services District has four county teams (e.g., Franklin, Western Wayne, Northeastern Wayne, and Union County). Their team recently completed the six-day training. Each county has created a brochure that will be distributed to all staff working with students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including cafeteria workers, bus drivers, vocational rehabilitations counselors, and mental health professionals. The purpose is to inform everyone that they exist and that they are available for consultation. In addition, each county team meets monthly to educate each other on specific strategies (e.g., using visual strategies, organizing workstations).

The goal for IRCA is to meet with each team across the state of Indiana by the end of the 2004-05 school year. In addition to providing outreach to individual district/cooperative teams, one member from each of the district/cooperatives is networking via a listserv. The goal of the listserv is to give leaders an avenue to share ideas, seek updated information, and network with others in similar positions across the state. In turn, the leader then distributes this information to their own team members to educate others in the area of ASD. A list of autism leaders in each area across the state is posted on IRCA’s website under the category of “Team Training.” In addition, the autism leaders are linking together within their Roundtable Areas as developed by the Indiana Council of Administrators of Special

Education (ICASE). Goals include networking, collaborating, and providing support to each other within their region. For example:

• The East Roundtable meets once a month. In spring of 2004, they created a template for a brochure and gathered resource matrials to give to parents as students are newly diagnosed. The purpose of a brochure is to inform general and special education staff, ancillary staff (e.g., cafeteria, bus drivers), outside agencies, and the community that the autism team exists and in what manner they can provide support for persons that work with individuals across the autism spectrum. This fall the group visited several classrooms in the Anderson Community Schools that have created sensory rooms.
• The Southeast Roundtable and the Northeast Roundtable autism team leaders met separately for the first time in April of 2004. In addition, the Southwest Roundtable met for the first time in September of 2004. Each of these three groups met to become acquainted and to share how their teams have used the autism team training provided by IRCA within their own districts. They will continue to meet to discuss specific strategies and how cooperatives/districts are implementing practices within their own communities.
• The Central Roundtable has been networking together since 2000. Many of their district/cooperative teams provide ongoing training on the characteristics of autism spectrum disorders, using visual strategies, and training paraprofessionals. Their group continues to meet on a monthly basis.
• The Northwest Roundtable will begin meeting in January of 2005 and the North Central Roundtable is currently organizing a date to start collaborating in 2005.

All who have become involved have welcomed the support, provide positive feedback, and enjoyed getting to know others who work in the area of ASD. This kind of outreach is evolving according to the leaders and teams needs within their communities. IRCA will continue to provide the support that is needed within each district/cooperative.

Dubie, M. (2004). Autism teams: Building capacity across Indiana. The Reporter, 10(1), 1-3.