Every day when we get our daily news, we can’t help but hear about different programs and funding coming from our federal government. One program that doesn’t get a lot of exposure but helps a great number of people is the Autism CARES Act. Initiated in 2006 and amended in 2019, this legislation served as the primary source of federal funding for autism research, early detection programs, education, and intervention programming.
The current legislation is facing a sunset at the end of September of this calendar. While credited for lowering the average age of diagnosis and training tens of thousands of professionals in this field, a new amendment has been developed with hopes of accomplishing some major improvements.
Included is a more inclusive approach to autism care and in particular adding people who require 24-hour care and may struggle with harmful or self-injurious behaviors. Work involving Gerontology has been requested, as well as the creation of a new Intervention Research Network for communication needs to support individuals who are speech or language-limited. I suspect that our colleagues at Northwestern will be involved with this.
The amendment has asked for more funding, namely a $279 million annual increase totaling over $2.1 billion to be spent over the next five years. No question it is a lot of money, but statistics show that over 5 million adults are on the Autism Spectrum, and children are now being diagnosed at a rate of 1 in 36. Put into perspective, it would be reasonable to think that at least one child in every classroom in school will be working with a child on the Autism Spectrum. The more we know and can learn in the time to come, the better it will be for many.
There are some interesting and new approaches to working with children and adults that I suspect will see some of this research money. I appreciate the work done by many, including ourselves, that pushes the envelope looking for new and improved tools and processes that can help the people we serve on the Autism Spectrum. We know that these needs are not going away, and like many, we are committed to providing support in the best ways possible.
