| | ”New Jersey's population of those with autism is very high, and development of appropriate teaching methods and behavior modification are important steps in maximizing the potential of students who fall within the autism spectrum." |
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| | Rep. Holt earned his B.A. in Physics from Carleton College in Minnesota and completed his Master’s and Ph.D. at NYU. He has held positions as a teacher, Congressional Science Fellow, and arms control expert at the U.S. State Department where he monitored the nuclear programs of countries such as Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union. Visit http://holt.house.gov/about.shtml to get more information.
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| | ”Unfortunately, the world of public education has not taken full advantage of available state-of-the art technology to enhance the education of students. This has been especially true in special needs education.” |
| | Mark J. Finkelstein
Superintendent – MRESC - Piscataway, NJ. |
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| | Middlesex Regional Educational Services Commission (MRESC) is the largest and most accomplished special needs school districts in the United States. MRESC’s success has been rooted in the willingness to provide innovative programs to their students. Visit http://www.mcesc.k12.nj.us for more Information.
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| | ”However, we have not come close to utilizing available technologies to provide educational support services for special needs students. Nowhere is this gap more evident than in the education of autistic students.” |
| | Dale G. Caldwell
Founder and CEO - RASP, New Brunswick, NJ. |
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| | Residential After-School Program, Inc. – RASP is providing educational support to special needs students and teachers in over 50 school districts in New Jersey. It also provides services to schools, community based institutions and government agencies that service youth and families. Visit http://www.raspinc.org for more information. |
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| | ” As the president of POAC, and the parent of a child with autism myself, I can certainly attest to the needs of this particular population. I have watched the numbers of children with autism increase year after to from just one in ten thousand when my own son was born 15 years ago, to a staggering one in one hundred today. New Jersey has the distinction of having the highest rate at one in ninety-four (one in sixty boys). It has not been easy for educational providers to keep pace with this kind of increase.”
” Right now there is so much that is not known about autism. We don’t have a definitive cause and there is no cure on the horizon. However, there is hope for all those affected by autism and that hope lies in education and intervention. Our community desperately needs expansion of research on effective teaching techniques and technologies." |
| | Gary Weitzen
President – POAC – East Brick, NJ. |
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| | Parents Of Autistic Children – POAC , a nonprofit organization, is the educational leader for the autism community providing more free training than any other organization. Additionally, POAC provides recreational and support services to children with autism and their families. Visit http://www.poac.net for more information. |
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| | ”My staff and I had the pleasure of previewing the work that WebTeam is doing to develop software which is geared specifically to improving the skills of children with autism. As you may know, the prevalence of autism in our population is rising and now 1 in 100 children are diagnosed with autism in the state of New Jersey.” |
| | Carol Markowitz
Chief Operating Officer – Eden Autism Services – Princeton, NJ. |
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| | Eden Institute is a school designed for the education of children and adolescents with autism. It was incorporated in 1975 and currently serve fifty-five students with autism between the ages of 3 to 21 years. Visit www.edenservices.org for more information. |
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