College Programs for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

We’ve written recently about the importance of supports for college students with executive function difficulties. Students who struggle with executive functions – organization, time management, and planning – may have excellent academic skills, but may not succeed in college because of their non-academic challenges.

Another group of students who may struggle in college despite their academic abilities and their absence of more “typical” learning challenges are those with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). As described in an article in The Village Voice by Elizabeth Walters, “Because autism is such a broad term, it can be difficult to pin down. Some people with autism are nonverbal and have limited cognitive abilities, while others have IQs in the genius range. Clinicians refer to a "spectrum" because the term includes a range of individual disorders.”

Many students with ASD are capable of doing the academic work in college, but do not apply, or are admitted and are not successful, because of other factors. These include difficulties with social interactions, including reading the social cues of their classmates and instructors and responding with appropriate behavior; some expressive language difficulties; and the organizational and planning difficulties found in executive function disorders. In addition, students with ASD may have such “co-morbid” conditions as ADHD.

Given the prevalence of ASD – recent CDC data estimates that about 1 in 68 or 1.5% of children were identified with ASD in 2012 – colleges are increasingly encountering students with ASD who need appropriate supports to be successful. Furthermore, many colleges recognize the importance of creating an environment that is welcoming to students with ASD and is flexible enough to meet their needs.

College programs for students with ASD have been around for a number of years. The New York Institute of Technology Vocational Independence Program began in the late 1980’s and offers both a path to a college degree and a non-college post-secondary track. The OASIS program at Pace University began under a different name in 2009. Other programs can be found at Rutgers and Fairleigh Dickinson has a program at both its Metropolitan and Florham campuses. Fees vary for these programs, but none are free or inexpensive.

This makes the REACH program at five City University of New York (CUNY) campuses of particular note. The program - at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Brooklyn College, the College of Staten Island, Kingsborough Community College and LaGuardia Community College – is operated under a grant and there is no cost to participating students, although the future of grant funding is not certain.

The CUNY description of the REACH program notes:

CUNY’s mission is to provide affordable and accessible higher education opportunities to ALL New Yorkers, especially those who have historically not had access to higher education opportunities, like students on the autism spectrum. Inclusive higher education is the next great civil rights movement, and CUNY wants to lead this movement by cultivating a University environment that promotes the success and full participation of students with ASD. 

So far, students enrolled in the REACH program who have stayed with the program have improved their grades, and report greater satisfaction with their college experience. If the program can obtain funding to continue it will be instructive to see further results.

Sharing History and Theater with Students

At The Yellin Center, we emphasize that there are many ways to learn and to express knowledge.  Twenty thousand New York City eleventh graders are about to experience education in a new and exciting way.  These students, all from schools with high percentages of low-income families, are going to learn about American history with the help of some Broadway multi-sensory aids.  Producers of the new musical Hamilton, about the revolutionary figure by the same name, have paired with the Rockefeller Foundation to finance student tickets to the show.  The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History plans to create a curriculum to go along with this Broadway experience, with materials to include primary documents from the era depicted in the musical.  Students will have the opportunity to develop and share their own artistic responses.

From the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery

 Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote and now stars in Hamilton, was once a New York City student himself.  He told The New York Times, “If we can excite curiosity in students, there’s no telling what can happen next.”  We agree.

Fall News You Can Use

It's hard to believe that today is the start of Labor Day Weekend and that summer is essentially over, even if our calendar tells us we still have a few weeks left. If school hasn't begun for you or your kids, it certainly will do so next week.

So, we figured it would be a good time to corral all the "Back to School" news and fall events that have filled our mailbox over the past week or so and share some of these with our readers.

Manhattan's Symphony Space will be holding its Thalia Kids Book Club this fall, featuring favorite children's books and their authors. Special treats include appearances by author Lois Lowry (joined by actor Sean Astin and his wife Christine), in honor of the 25th anniversary of her Newbery Medal-winning book Number the Stars (October 19th); David Hyde Pierce and Jane Curtin celebrating E.B. White's classics Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little (November 16th); and Natalie Babbitt, who will mark the 40th anniversary of her book Tuck Everlasting (January 25, 2015). Past year's events have sold out quickly, so don't delay getting tickets.

On Sunday, September 14, the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn is holding a free program for children with special needs called "Special Day for Special Kids." Kids and their families can explore the museum before it opens to the public.

Another program at the New York Transit Museum recognizes the particular appeal that trains hold for many children on the autism spectrum. The fall Subway Sleuths program for 2nd-5th graders has opened registration. Contact the Museum's Education Manager Elyse Newman at elyse.newman@nyct.com to learn
more.

The Museum of the City of New York has a series of family "drop in" programs scheduled for fall weekends and school holidays. These are free with museum admission.

Advocates for Children of New York has a Start of School fact sheet for New York City parents whose children receive special education services under an IEP (Individualized Education Program). And a fact sheet for families who are new to the public school system, whose child has not been assigned to a New York City school, can be found on the website of the New York City Department of Education.

The Jury is Out on New NYC Special Education Rules

Parents who place their children in private special education schools in New York City and seek to have their tuition payments either made directly by the public school system (Connors funding) or reimbursed to them (Carter funding), have long come up against a NYC Department of Education which has put up extensive procedural barriers to avoid making these payments. Even the Mayor's office noted, in a press release, "The special education placement process has been fraught with contention and litigation in recent years."

    

Now, in the face of a bill pending in the New York State legislature which would make it easier and quicker for families to receive public funding, the City has decided to remove the most onerous barriers faced by families seeking school funding and, according to a statement by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, is "...turning the page, making changes that will ease the burden on these parents [by] ... cutting red tape, speeding up the process, and reaching outcomes that do right by families.”  A 2012 bill which would have permitted funding in religious schools was vetoed by the Governor, but the current bill (which has been put on hold in light of this action by New York City) did not include this provision.


The specifics of the new policy are scheduled to be put in place by September of this year and include:

• Expedited Decisions: The City will now seek to reach a settlement with parents (in cases where settlement is appropriate) within 15 days of receiving notice from the parent of their intention to place their child in a private special education school.
• Ending Unnecessary Litigation: The City will no longer litigate cases which were settled or decided in prior years, or where the Department of Education fails to offer a school placement, except where there is a change in the kind of educational setting the student requires.
• Less Paperwork: Parents will no longer need to submit full documentation every year. The new requirement will be for documentation every three years.
• Quicker Payments: The City will make monthly payments where required by a school and give parents a payment schedule for other payments. 
• Payments Pending Appeals: Where parents have won a claim for tuition reimbursement which the City seeks to appeal, the City will pay the tuition while the appeal is pending.

Attorneys practicing in the area of special education are hopeful that these new policies mark an end to the very difficult relationship between the City and it's Department of Education and parents. Still, the devil is always in the details and families and the attorneys representing them are reserving judgement until they see how this new approach works in practice. 

Masa: Empowering Families Through Education

Today we have a guest blogger, Jessica Coffrin-St. Julien, who writes about Masa, a nonprofit organization based in Bronx, New York.

Three evenings a week, in the moments before 6 PM, some 60 children and their parents rush from their homes toward busy Melrose Avenue in the South Bronx. They walk briskly, backpacks in tow, to a cafeteria located on the ground floor of Immaculate Conception Church. As students enter the utilitarian space, they know where to go and what to do: they approach their designated tables, greeted by the familiar face of their tutor. Parents make their way to a small stage, where they participate in workshops. The room is abuzz with quiet energy; children giggle with their tutors, chew on pencils, furrow their brows as they work through tough problems. Parents greet each other warmly in Spanish and lean in from their seats to hear the evening’s workshop facilitator.

This program is Masa, a Bronx-based non-profit that promotes academic achievement, civic engagement, and leadership among under-served families, with a particular focus on families of Mexican descent. As a long-time board member of Masa, I– along with my fellow board members and our wonderful, if tiny, staff – have been deeply involved in planning and implementing our programs. Founded in 2001 as an advocacy group promoting in-state tuition for undocumented students, Masa has retained its focus on education over the years, expanding and deepening our services to meet the needs of the community we serve.

As reported by the New York Times, New York City’s Mexican community has had poor educational outcomes relative to other local ethnic groups; about 41 percent of Mexican youth between ages 16 and 19 in the city have dropped out of school, while no other major immigrant group has a dropout rate higher than 20 percent. The reasons underlying this astonishing gap in academic attainment are complex, but its very existence speaks to the pressing need for programs that provide educational supports to the city’s Mexican population. In Masa’s case, this need is made all the more urgent because the vast majority of our students attend schools in local District 7. At least according to results from 2012-2013 State exams in English and Math, District 7 is the lowest-performing of the 32 districts in New York City.

All this is to say that there are real barriers to educational success for Masa’s students. However, there are also real opportunities and strengths to build upon. Masa’s families are deeply committed to academic achievement; they conceive of education as key to securing a better future for their children. They have sacrificed immensely in support of that dream, navigating an unfamiliar new city, working long hours, and diligently monitoring their children’s progress at school. Oftentimes, our families simply lack access to some of the tools or resources foundational to achieving their goals, such as access to tutors, knowledge about the complex local public education system, and English language skills. (This last issue is rendered more complex for the subset of our parents who did not have access to formal education as children, and therefore have limited literacy skills in Spanish.)

With these issues in mind, Masa has enlisted an ever-growing roster of dedicated volunteers to provide tutoring and homework help for Masa students. We work with outside organizations to provide information to parents about the complexities of school enrollment, language access, and services available for English Language Learners and students with special needs. We offer English classes for parents. And we strive to do it all while creating a welcoming community space. For our parents and children, navigating local bureaucracies can be an alienating and sometimes degrading experience. At Masa, we want families to feel safe, welcomed, and empowered.

Jessica Coffrin-St. Julien has served on Masa’s board since 2009, closely supporting program development and operations. In the past, she has worked at several out-of-school-time programs; currently, she works for an education non-profit, doing research and supporting a variety of school-level pilot projects. She feels lucky to be part of the Masa community!

Celebrating Independence Day with Family in NYC

As the long holiday weekend begins, and travelers leave New York City for the beach and country, there are still plenty of meaningful ways for you and your children to celebrate the 237th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence right here in New York.

You probably won't make the last day of the New York Public Library's brief exhibition of a copy of the Declaration of Independence, written in Thomas Jefferson's own hand, and one of the remaining original copies of the Bill of Rights, which closes today at 4 pm., but you can visit The New York Historical Society to see their exhibit  "From Colony to Nation: 200 Years of American Painting", which is open (and free for those 18 and under) on Thursday, July 4th.

Photo: Tom Check

The Statue of Liberty re-opens to the public on July 4th after post-Hurricane Sandy repairs (Ellis Island suffered more serious damage and remains closed) but tickets to Liberty Island from Manhattan are sold out until later in the month. As an alternative, consider a free ride on the Staten Island Ferry, which offers views of the statue and lower Manhattan and is always a treat for kids of all ages. The Ferry operates on a holiday schedule on July 4th. While you are on Staten Island -- and since you have to get off of the ferry for the return ride -- you might want to hop a bus to join the celebration in Historic Richmond Town. 

The Children's Museum of Manhattan is open on the 4th and is celebrating by encouraging kids of all ages to construct a Lady Liberty sculpture. 

For those who like to spend the holiday at home, you can always set your DVR for the annual showing of the musical film 1776, which is being broadcast on Turner Classic Movies at 1:30 am on July 4th, as well as being available through other movie services. There is plenty of interesting history set out between the entertaining musical numbers and something
the entire family will enjoy.

Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair Has Something for Everyone

Spring-like temperatures have finally come to New York City and the forecast for this weekend is for sunny weather. To add to the good news, the free Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair is back, and its line up this year is better than ever!

Go to Greenwich Street between Chambers and Hubert this Saturday from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. to sample all the festival has to offer. Fans of performance art can watch a variety of family friendly live entertainment throughout the day, and movie buffs can take advantage of some interactive film making demonstrations and exhibits. Be sure to check out free screenings, like a sneak peek at Smurfs 2 and animated shorts from StoryCorps. Athletes in the family will love exploring the ESPN Sports Day options, where they can try a variety of sports activities and games (anyone for myachi? How about fencing?), enter contests, and learn new skills. Fuel the fun with food from various local restaurants, and learn how to recreate some of that culinary magic in your own kitchen through demonstrations by some of the top chefs in the city. And you can head home in style after browsing trendy mer
chandise from area boutiques.

The Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair has something to delight everyone in the family. Visit their website  for a schedule and more detailed information about events and attractions. Don’t miss it!

MoMath, the New Math Museum in Manhattan

Here at The Yellin Center, we've got math on our minds. While it seems that a great deal is known about what happens in the brain when people process language, comparatively little information exists about the way the brain conceptualizes numbers and amounts. So we've been reading new studies about the brain and numbers with great interest and are expanding our knowledge about what “number sense” actually is, how automaticity in number recognition impacts math performance, and the very real problem of math anxiety.

With all this background, we were especially excited to visit Museum of Mathematics, or MoMath, which is just a few blocks away from our learning center! Mo Math is the brainchild of Glen Whitney, a former math professor who now serves as the museum’s president. The museum, which focuses on abstract concepts without much emphasis on numbers, is the only math museum in the country according to the New York Times. It opened its doors for the first time on December 15, 2012, and has received rave reviews from visitors ranging from preschoolers to Ph. D. candidates.

According to its mission statement, the museum “illuminates the patterns that abound in our world.” Its exhibits are dynamic and are intended to spark visitors’ curiosity, inspire them to ask questions, and reveal the fascinating side of a subject many people find dull, obtuse, or downright scary. Whitney hopes to dispel myths that math is hard or boring with beautiful, exciting exhibits that may inspire some visitors to take a second look a at subject they thought they had pegged.

If our observations there were any indication, Whitney has met his goal and then some. “On a scale of one to ten,” we heard a father asking his family as they exited the museum, “what would you rate this place?” “Ten!” called out a boy who looked to be about eight. “Twelve!!” his older brother yelled. Everywhere we looked, children and adults alike were intent on riding square-wheeled tricycles (that actually work!), creating patterns with tessellation tiles, solving wooden puzzles by detecting patterns, jumping around on a dance floor-like space that lights up, and adjusting lengths of track to make a toy car race along it as quickly as possible. One of our favorite exhibits was a calculator that was two stories high and made of string; we enjoyed figuring out how it worked (but we won’t give away the secret!). Who’d have thought this level of engagement would exist at a museum? About math?

We thought we detected a caveat for a while; the museum was seriously lacking in meaty, mathematical explanations for the phenomena we were observing. Touch screens are available near many exhibits with explanations, and we could choose how detailed we wanted the explanation to be. But even the most in-depth explanations were pretty abstract, and this caused lots of fervent discussion within our group about the cold, hard data that would explain what we were actually seeing. Suddenly, it seemed that perhaps sparking this kind of discussion was the whole point. And the children around us were too busy having fun with rolling shapes and scattering light waves to miss the numbers.

To sum it up, you should visit the National Museum of Mathematics. It’s located at 11 E. 26th Street in Manhattan and is open seven days a week, from 10:00 A.M to 5:00 P.M.


*Chang, Kenneth. “One Math Museum, Many Variables.”The New York Times. June 27, 2011.

Photos: Beth Guadagni

Opportunities for Young Authors with Scribble Press

Kids love to make up stories. Not only is helping them stretch their imaginations a lot of fun, it also builds important cognitive skills. One way to do this is to help them write their own books, and for families in New York City, this can be accomplished through a visit to Scribble Press. Children can visit the company’s  studio to make a book, experiment with a variety of art supplies, take a class, or arrange/attend a party. In the studio, kids write and illustrate their stories and then hand their pages over for binding. The professional-looking final product is available to take home the same day. Kids can also design their own puzzle, greeting cards, clipboard, lunch box, and more.

For families located outside the New York City area, or whose kids are too full of ideas to wait for a trip to the studio, Scribble Press offers an iPad app for designing books. Scribble Press for iPad  is a low cost app that allows kids to either pick and write from a template or design their own eBooks from scratch. They can actually “color” directly on the screen, making drawing easier than it is with one of the many web-based book creation sites which use a computer and a mouse. Best of all, kids can submit their books for publishing, and Scribble Press will print, bind, and ship their book to them.  An especially interesting feature is Scribble Press’s public ebook library, which allows other users to view books. This makes sharing with friends and family easy, and is a great source of ideas for children who aren't sure where to start. Some online products are free, but there are fees for most services, including printed books and all classes.

Whether you visit a studio or investigate the app, Scribble Press offers great options for budding authors to express themselves!

Find Events for Kids with New York Magazine

In New York City, finding great options to entertain and educate your kids is generally not a problem; rather, parents may find themselves struggling to choose between too many choices. An art class at the Met? A live band performance? Bouldering in the park?

New York Magazine provides a useful tool to help parents navigate the plethora of options. Check out their Kids Agenda (near the bottom right of their main kids page) for a list of all upcoming events in the city. Alternately, you can use the “Find Events for Kids” function to help narrow your search for great options for your little and not-so-little ones. For example, we used the drop-down menus to search for “workshops/classes” in the next 7 days and found 9 results, including a fire-safety tour and simulation, a chance to create nature crafts from natural materials in Prospect Park, and a pizza cooking class. Check-marks appear next to events critics have selected as being particularly promising.

Also on the site are reviews of family-friendly movies, a directory of recommended stores and restaurants to visit with your kids, and more.

Keeping Kids in Motion

Most New Yorkers recognize the New York Road Runners as the organizers of the ING New York City Marathon, one of the largest marathons in the world. But did you know that NYRR is dedicated to providing running programs for kids, too? On October 23rd, NYRR will host their semi-annual Youth Jamboree at the New Balance Track and Field Center at the Armory in upper Manhattan. These Jamborees, which feature track and field events for children from kindergarten through 8th grade, are open to any child who registers. Against the backdrop of the running, jumping, and throwing events, NYRR will offer a family health fair. For more information or to register your child, visit NYRR’s website.

NYRR’s other youth programs are worth investigating as well. Mighty Milers promotes fitness by encouraging kids to integrate exercise into their daily lives. Participants can track their progress online and work toward incentives provided by NYRR. Young Runners is a free program for kids in elementary school up through high school. Kids can join a running team and enjoy regular coaching sessions, entry into races, and more. Young Runners is available to schools, churches, or other organizations. Visit NYRR’s homepage for even more opportunities to help kids get moving.




Image derived from photo used under Creative Commons by Nam Nguyen