Welcome
Welcome to the Autism Education Project. In the coming months, this site will be a repository of information and resources about providing education for teachers and criminal justice professionals about how to interact meaningfully and respectfully with Autistic people, taking action to end restraint and seclusion, and helping ordinary people work together to lobby for justice in cases of egregious violation of the rights of an Autistic person.
While the site is under construction, feel free to explore the navigation menu to the left. There is a good deal of content on the site now, with more to come in the next few weeks and months.
This site is currently under construction.
- 9 July 2012
While the site is under construction, feel free to explore the navigation menu to the left. There is a good deal of content on the site now, with more to come in the next few weeks and months.
This site is currently under construction.
- 9 July 2012
Accessibility
If this site is not accessible to you for any reason, please email the administrator at lydia.brown@autismeducationproject.org to request an appropriate and accessible version of the site. Please describe the accommodations necessary to make the content accessible for you.
Thursday 12 July 2012: Hearing on Keeping All Students Safe Act
On Thursday 12 July 2012, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will hold a full committee hearing open to the public called Beyond Seclusion and Restraint: Creating Positive Learning Environments for All Students at 10:30AM in room 106 of the Senate Dirksen Building in Washington DC. Senate Bill 2020, the Keeping All Students Safe Act, will be considered at this hearing.
The panelists testifying will be Dr. Daniel Crimmins, Director of the Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University; Cyndi Pitonyak, Coordinator of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports for Montgomery County, Virginia, Public Schools; Dr. Michael George , Director of the Centennial School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and Debbie Jackson, a parent from Easton, Pennsylvania.
This hearing is open to the public, so if you are in or near Washington DC, please consider attending.
The panelists testifying will be Dr. Daniel Crimmins, Director of the Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University; Cyndi Pitonyak, Coordinator of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports for Montgomery County, Virginia, Public Schools; Dr. Michael George , Director of the Centennial School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and Debbie Jackson, a parent from Easton, Pennsylvania.
This hearing is open to the public, so if you are in or near Washington DC, please consider attending.
June 2012: New Report on Advocacy and Social Media
Read the paper "Amplifying Your Voice: Four case studies examining the impact of social media and online grassroots activism in effecting change for individual cases and in public policy on disability rights issues."
Download here!
Download here!
July 2012: Fact Sheet on Employment
Download the fact sheet here!
Restraint, Seclusion, and Aversives: Read the Reports!
I have compiled a set of resources and reports published by government and independent offices and writers concerning restraint and seclusion, which can be read and downloaded on the page on Restraint and Seclusion. If you know of a resource or report that is missing from that page, please contact me so I can add it!
These are the resources. You can click to open in your browser, or right-click and select "save target as" to save a copy to your hard drive.
These are the resources. You can click to open in your browser, or right-click and select "save target as" to save a copy to your hard drive.
- How Safe Is The Schoolhouse? An Analysis of State Seclusion and Restraint Laws and Policies by Jessica Butler, Autism National Committee
- Government Accountability Office: Seclusions and Restraints: Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers
- Alliance to Prevent Restraint, Aversive Interventions, and Seclusion: In the Name of Treatment: A Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Child From the Use of Restraint, Aversive Interventions, and Seclusion
- American Academic of Pediatrics: Clinical Report: Maltreatment of Children With Disabilities
- National Disability Rights Network: School is Not Supposed to Hurt: Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in Schools
- TASH: Shouldn't School Be Safe? Working Together to Keep Every Child Safe from Restraint and Seclusion in School
- The Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys: Unsafe in the Schoolhouse: Abuse of Children with Disabilities by Jessica Butler, last updated in May 2009.
- February 2012 report from Minnesota Department of Education, entitled "The Use of Prone Restraint in Minnesota Schools: August 2011 through January 2012." This report also includes useful appendices.
- March 2012 report from National Disability Rights Network, entitled "School Is Not Supposed to Hurt: The U.S. Department of Education Must Do More to Protect School Children from Restraint and Seclusion." This is the third report issued under the title "School Is Not Supposed to Hurt."
How can I get involved?
- You can follow the cases and action alerts posted here.
- You can notify me when a new case is publicized or if you learn of a case through personal experience, a friend, or a family member.
- You can lobby for existing legislative initiatives at the state and federal levels.
- You can volunteer to lead a legislative campaign in your own state.
Sponsored By
A project of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
