Educate parents about their rights Identify range of interventions and best practices specific to ASD and create clinical guidelines to ensure interventions are within best practices and within the natural and least restrictive environment for the child. How are we certain that best practices are followed? Have a multidisciplinary internal review board to look at practices in Vermont How will we measure fidelity to clinical guidelines? Who will develop clinical guidelines? How will we know clinical guidelines are being followed? Figure out what types of funding sources could be available. Including ABA and other practices such as ESDM and other promising practices not currently reimbursable through the state plan. Who? Autism Work Group When? December 2016 How will we know? 1. No or minimal waitlists for families. 2. Documentation of best practices and their components (see MTSS field guide-Jim Calhoun) As appropriate, align best practices with family preferences. Who? Vermont LEND?? Acknowledge that we need to leverage current system capacity for individualized behavioral supports as we build future system capacity. best practices and within the natural and least restrictive environment for the child. How are we certain that best practices are followed? Have a multidisciplinary internal review board to look at practices in Vermont How will we measure fidelity to clinical guidelines? Who will develop clinical guidelines? How will we know clinical guidelines are being followed? Advocacy and funding go hand in hand access Medicaid funding for this? ESDM can be done and bill the ABA codes… however, you need the certified/credentialed BCBA’s to supervise the work. School contracts are more profitable (mixture of funding – Part B and Medicaid): Rate/day Staff turnover has less impact on these because we have to meet our contractual obligations Insurance programs (straight Medicaid): We can only bill when we see the child Staff turnover CDC contract (combo of Title V and Medicaid): If a child no-shows, contract still pays a portion How could we think about creating funding that is more secure – blending Medicaid with other funds that allow some degree of flexibility like a contract would? Are there programs who do this that we can learn from? Can Global Commitment savings be accessed – investment dollars? We need real ‘money’ people helping tease this out to think creatively about what could be possible. How would security in the money help staffing capacity? We currently grow from within the company to grow pro staff – we give tuition assistance to help them gain their certification.
There is nowhere to pull BCBA’s from… Are there any Institutes of Higher Ed offering training? Do any of them have grants to help with tuition reimbursement? Can the State apply for any grants (like Title IV-E) to pay for tuition reimbursement with an obligation to work in the field for a while afterwards. Who can help consider this??? Professional grant-writers??? Where do we find the grants??? Medicaid Advisory Board, Green Mtn Care Board, could help us consider this. Professionals who provide services to individuals with ASD will demonstrate competencies that reflect the experience needed when working with individuals on the spectrum. Training will be available to all professionals for building capacity to meet the needs of individuals with ASD and their families. Group members: Danielle Bragg Hillary Hill Matt Habedank Adam Poulin Julie Smith Joy Wilcox Meg Mayo Develop competencies for educators and interventionists CIS providers Family directed staff (PCA, respite) Private providers School professionals Spec ed General education Admin. Para educators OT, PT, SLP Develop education and resource materials for community members and support personnel who interact with children and youth with autism. Include the following: Caregiver affect Do no harm Safety a.) Is it worth cross checking with other groups/depts. to find out if there are overlapping efforts? What systems are in place to ensure that entities outside of schools adhere to and train to these competencies as well – do oversight systems need to be looked at for this either – example of SLP, OT, PT is discussed? BCBA’s—RBT, standards for competencies, could we establish for the state? There are standards and a licensing process. Schools will struggle with kids who come in without getting treatment – will show up as high needs Need education and dialogue to make sure resources are directed to where they are most needed There is a huge variation across schools and districts in what an actual title means and what level of training is tied to the title/credential Realistic limitation that if legislation is passed to require oversight of Autism intervention, other advocacy groups will want the same thing for their kids – possibly more realistic to ensure that they honestly represent their capacity
Chris Kane Interactions Relationships Support or reinforce prosocial behaviors Early childhood development Typical childhood development Core knowledge/skills supporting positive behavior and inclusion For the following groups: Local Police Depts. DCF-FSD staff, foster parents First responders (ER, hospital staff) Dr’s, nurses, medical students, dentist After school programs Early care and educational programs It will be important to tend to requirements of providers—what are the competencies? Work with appropriate people to build standards. Not necessarily put in job description but they are trained to an expectation. Make educational competencies accessible via funding Review these competencies to determine who should be done with them b.) Take an inventory of gaps. Identify training needs based on this and build on current resources. Work with higher education programs to offer degree Joy works on the governor’s council to attempt to address some of these concerns Provision of ABA services to kids without ASD – SD serves some of these kids through Medicaid, NCSS does under the IFS umbrella Discussed training—are there some core skills for any provider that could help anyone interacting with children/youth on the spectrum (such as Mental Health First Aid). Do we have two levels: one for people interacting with individuals and one for people making decisions about services. Create a day-long training people can access-offer it in each county Share information about different assessments Importance of collaborations with others—Let’s Grow Kids, Patty Prelock (CS at UVM), PCC, CHSN, Vermont Family Network, Vermont afterschool What do we use for outcome assessments? And how do we show outcomes? Discussed telehealth-would that expand access? Question: Is the Autism Task Force still meeting?
Educational services that provide the full range of continuum of supports and services will be available to students with ASD throughout Vermont. Group Members: Kirsten Murphy Lana Metayer Philip Eller James Calhoun Miriam Novotny Michelle Irish Increase collaboration between AOE and AHS Gather more information about the availability of services to assist in the reintegration of kids who have been placed out of district and are ready to come home Identify availability of afterschool/community supports Work with AOE about special education vs. time in the classroom Explore rule making around adverse effect Consideration of the functional aspects of SpEd eligibility re: Adverse Effect is already a part of their schools’ best practices, as being promoted by the Stakeholders Group trainings Philip shared copies of the documents that the Vermont Autism Task Forces is distributing to various legislators for the proposed legislation pertaining to Adverse Effect. It essentially eliminates the Gate 2 and replaces it with (4) “Adverse effect” means, for students of legal school age, having a negative impact.” (5) “Educational Performance’ means, for students of legal school age, performance in academic and functional areas both within the general curriculum and in areas necessary to access public education and gain functional independence later in life, including but not limited to socio-emotional development, communication, reasoning and problem solving, civic and social responsibility, and skills.” This language is included in a 6-page paper, written for VATF by a lawyer from Autism Speaks; it contains four pages of background and rationale and two pages of legislation language. Also being shared with legislators is a one-page summary of the adverse effect issue and a one-page copy of the New Hampshire special education eligibility criterion (that says nothing about adverse effect).