Legal issues with autism spectrum disorder and applied behavioral analysis 1999- May 2010

Public school administrators address student programs and individual student needs on a daily basis. Children diagnosed with special education needs and, specifically, autism spectrum disorders require knowledge and understanding of appropriate programs, methods, and services. With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), school administrators must provide programs that are research based with data to support results indicating annual yearly progress. Federal and state courts now address the components of IDEA and NCLB when student placement and programming is questioned. The purpose of this study was to examine programming for public school children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and the methodology of applied behavioral analysis in preschool through Grade 12 from 1999 to May 2010. The intent of this research was to provide public school administrators with guidelines and recommendations when implementing programs that are appropriate and will provide the children with functional and academic growth. Federal and State court cases included in this research were located through WESTLAW and IDELR legal resources. Cases were analyzed using the brief analysis (Statsky & Wernet, 1995). Twenty-four recommendations were generated from a content analysis of case law in the 92 cases briefs. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries