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Elementary and Secondary Education
The positive side of Howard County's large autism numbers is that most Howard County elementary schools have experience with children with autism. If a child requires a one-on-one assistant in order to access the
general education curriculum and classroom, one will be provided. The school district offers two optional annual 6-week in-services for teachers, aides, etc. One is more basic and the other goes into more
detail and participants must do planning and hands on work around a specific student. While the majority of children are included at the elementary school level, there are some self-contained classrooms for the kids
who tend to be more severe (most of these students are non-verbal or have limited verbal abilility, along with significant challenging behaviors).
On the negative side, the significant increase in the number of children with autism that Howard County is experiencing is putting some strain on the system. In particular, the bulk of the population will begin
hitting middle school in the next 2 years. The middle schools are beginning to struggle with the students they are getting. On the plus side though, the school system recognizes the growing middle and high
school challenge and is looking at new training for teachers.
School principals are usually transferred every 5 years and good principals are sent to lower performing schools (to try to maintain quality county-wide). Principals can be very important to how schools accept
students with disabilities. If you are considering coming to Howard County, we urge you to look not only at standard assessment scores for schools, as many of the lower performing schools have excellent principals
and special education staff. Having said that, like every school district in the Country, Howard County’s is not perfect. There is a need for more administrator and staff training and increased
special education funding to support students with autism in general education classrooms.
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