In The Politics of Autism, I write about special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
In the last decade, the prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability (ID) in schools has increased. However, there is a paucity of information on special education placement, service use, and relationships between service use and demographic variables for children with ASD without ID. This study aimed to describe and explore variation in type and amount of special education services provided to (N = 89) children with ASD. Results indicated that the largest percentage of children received services under the Autism classification (56.2%) and were in partial-inclusion settings (40.4%). The main services received were speech (70.8%) and occupational (56.2%) therapies, while few children received behavior plans (15.7%) or social skills instruction (16.9%). Correlates with service use are described.
