High school sets up autistic kids to fail in college. Here's how to fix the problem.
Ever since kindergarten, my son, Archer, has been "in the system." Before he started school, my wife and I notified the district that he'd been diagnosed with autism. Each year since then — Archer is wrapping up eighth grade — we've met with his teachers and school administrators to work out an Individualized Education Program, determining how many hours a week he'd be pulled out of class for one-on-one therapies and how much leeway his teachers should allow him to fidget, pace, or calm himself by humming softly.
Like most other parents of kids with autism spectrum disorders, my wife and I can expect to continue having these meetings until Archer graduates from high school. The Individualized Education Program has changed as he's matured and his social skills have improved, but until Archer turns 18, his teachers will know about his disorder, and we'll have the right to call meetings and make special requests on his behalf. That's the way the system works, and it's been working very well for autism spectrum kids across the country for years now.
"We make the assumption that high schools are getting students ready for college, and they're not"
The bad news is that the familiar patterns of care that have proved so effective at moving autistic students through their primary and secondary education may actually end up hindering them if they choose to go to college — or even into the workforce.
"We make the erroneous assumption that high schools are getting students ready for college, and they're not really," said Dr. Gerard Hoefling, who works with the Autism Support Program at Drexel University. "That's not their primary task. High schools do a wonderful job of getting students ready to graduate from high school."
Fortunately, there are steps that parents, colleges, and autism spectrum students themselves can take to ease the transition from high school to college. Nearly all of them focus on helping students like Archer to become independent self-advocates — the same goal most parents have for their neurotypical kids, too.
The problem with high school
The exact number of men and women on the spectrum attending college today is hard to pin down, because there are few incentives at the moment for those students to register with disability services. Circa 2008, autism researchers estimated that anywhere from 1 to 2 percent of the university population had autism, Asperger's, or some pervasive developmental disorder. Autism spectrum diagnoses have only risen since then.
Jane Brown, co-director of the organization College Autism Spectrum, described the big problem with how students on the autism spectrum transition from high school to college: "Up through high school, parents are advocates and CEO of their child's education."But not only are universities not inclined to allow parents to stay in that driver's seat, they're legally bound in some cases to shut parents out. Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, once students turn 18, they become the stewards of their own records, from grades to whatever special learning tools and accommodations they might request.
In high school, the laws are geared toward making sure that all children, regardless of any disability, have a right to "a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment."Colleges are under no such obligation to make sure students learn and thrive. They have to provide certain resources for people on the autistic spectrum, but it's not their responsibility to make sure those resources get used.
How to bridge this disconnect between the structure of high school and the expectations of college? Dr. Susan White, co-director of Virginia Tech's Autism Clinic, suggested that while parents of neurotypical kids usually start thinking seriously about college when their children enter their junior year of high school, it would help if parents of children on the spectrum started much sooner, asking the questions, "What are the life skills they're going to need, and how can they start developing more independence?"
Over and over, the people I talked to about the challenges facing autistic and Asperger's students in college said that "self-advocacy" was the biggest issue. Many of these teens have never known what was being requested on their behalf when they were in high school, and so don't know what to ask for in college. Worse, due to the nature of the disorder, they lack the social skills to talk to peers or adapt to their situation.
"Students on the spectrum don't pick things up just from watching," Brown said. "That nonverbal social learning often is not a strength."
There are some scattered materials online about how kids on the spectrum get ready for adulthood. Lisa Goring, the executive vice president of programs and services at Autism Speaks, recommends her organization's online guides to transitioning from adolescence,postsecondary education, and joining the workforce. In an earlier Vox article, I wrote aboutthe 10 things I'm trying to teach my 13-year-old autist: I mainly want him to be able to stay fed, get where he needs to be, and exhibit enough self-awareness about his quirks so he doesn't unnerve the neurotypical.
But according to nearly everyone I spoke to about this topic, the number-one thing I should be doing for Archer is something I hadn't even considered: making sure he's in the room when my wife and I have our annual meetings with his school.
If more kids on the spectrum were aware of how much special leeway they were being given in elementary and secondary school, they'd know themselves what they need to work on. It's hard to have a serious, potentially embarrassing personal conversation with anyadolescent, but it's especially important that parents talk with their autism spectrum children about the nature of their disorder and how they can manage it.
How to improve the transition: start preparing early
When I mention Archer to Brown, she good-naturedly nags, "You're starting to get him ready for college now, right?"
Brown has a 23-year-old on the spectrum, and understands the confusion and frustration parents face when they're handing college freshmen over to institutions that may see them as just another face in the crowd. She estimates that the average university disability services administrator has a caseload of between 150 and 600 students, and can't hover over these kids' shoulders in the way parents were used to in elementary and high school.
That said, she does believe colleges are doing a good job of adjusting to the needs of autistic students. They can't substantially alter the requirements of a class that autists and the High school sets up autistic kids to fail in college. Here's how to fix the problem. - Vox: