'Autism Foundation Plans Meeting for New Charter School

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- A Montgomery County mother who has long battled to provide effective education and support for her son with autism is working with her organization, Thrive With Autism, to establish a charter school in Magnolia, Texas for children with autism.

The school, a proposed open-enrollment, tuition-free charter school, is intended to serve children with autism in Conroe, Klein, Magnolia, Montgomery, Spring, and Tomball ISDs.

The organization will hold a public meeting to share their plans and progress at 6 p.m. Dec. 9 in the Lodge Room Stonebridge Church. The church is located at 1 Stonebridge Church Dr., The Woodlands, TX 77382.

“I have an 8-year-old son with autism, and it has been hard to find the right fit. I took a step back and said, if I could send him anywhere in the world, where would that be and what would that look like?” said Elizabeth Goldsmith. Experts say one out of every 54 children in the United States is diagnosed with autism each year.

“I was a physician assistant, and I’ve also worked in the research field through Baylor, so I’m definitely interested in evidence-based treatments for autism,” said Goldsmith, who serves as the foundation’s founder and president.

Goldsmith searched and found a school in Florida that best represents the kind of school that she believes would best serve her son and other students with autism. The organization, Els for Autism, has locations in Florida, Canada, South Africa, and the UK. It incorporates Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, considered by many experts as the gold standard treatment for autism, into an academic setting. Thrive With Autism will model itself after the charter school at Els for Autism in Jupiter, Fl.

“They also created a one-stop-shop approach, offering onsite recreation activities after school, and insurance-based therapies such as speech, occupational therapy, and feeding therapies. Right now, parents have to pick up their children after school and drive them around town to needed therapies,' Goldsmith said.

Another service offered is vocational training to teenagers for a variety of jobs, and has a mock grocery store, golf shop, office area, and hardware store. “These are things that can build up these children so they can be successful in life,” Goldsmith said.

Other services offered are social skills groups and support groups.

Thrive seeks to offer these services onsite to reduce the load on parents, while exposing their children with autism to new experiences that they otherwise may not have access to.

According to the Thrive With Autism website, a charter school is a privately run, but publicly funded school, approved and held accountable by the state of Texas. The charter establishes the philosophy of the school and is smaller and more individualized. Enrollment at a charter school is by family choice. Charter schools may not charge students to attend and may not teach religion. Many federal education laws pertaining to public schools also apply to charter schools.

According to the Thrive With Autism website, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a data-driven therapy that breaks down skills and teaches using prompting procedures coupled with positive reinforcement. A skill is mastered only after trials show success in the data collected. ABA seeks to properly connect those necessary skills prompting a 'rewiring' of the brain, which teaches children with autism 'how to learn.'

For more information, visit Thrive With Autism Foundation at www.thrivewautism.org and attend the Public Meeting Dec. 9.

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