Distinguished State Legislators, Governor, Mayor and Elected Officials:

We, the undersigned, represent the NYC Autism Charter School. We are in 100% support of public Charter Schools to educate special needs children diagnosed with Autism, in order to help them reach their highest potential. The NYC Autism Charter School is providing a special needs education not possible in the traditional school system. It is a model for Autism education in New York and needs your support.

As parents and family of children with Autism, it is impossible for all of us to leave our children and travel to Albany for Charter School Advocacy Day. However, we are a strong, committed and supportive community. We sign this petition because we are the voice of a student population that does not have a strong voice and strongly advocate on behalf of NYC Charter Schools.

Please support and preserve the NYC Autism Charter School for the following reasons:

Special Needs:

We are the only public Charter School in New York State exclusively dedicated to educating children with Autism.

We utilize a random, non-discriminatory lottery process to select students.

We serve a diverse population.

We utilize a high quality, science based individualized programming based on the

principled of ABA, known to be the most effective teaching method for children

with autism.

Our programming reflects the unique needs of each student and family, such as

learning how to tolerate haircuts or practicing job skills in the community.

We aim to move students who are ready into general education status or less

restrictive settings.

Co-Locations:

We are co-located in East Harlem’s PS/IS 50’s school facility which allows us the opportunity to include our students in less restrictive classrooms.

We offer a Peer Mentoring program in which regular education students from the local community spend time with us so they can learn about autism and become mentors to our students.

We are working with Harlem RBI and several other businesses and agencies in East Harlem.

Best Practices:

We are committed to sharing best practices and provide outreach training to other District 75 special needs classrooms.

We disseminate proven-effective teaching methods for children with autism beyond our walls.

We provide training for new professionals.