POAC of Central MD's advocacy efforts:

National:

In late December 2007, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee of the National Institutes of Health issued a Request for Information from autism stakeholders regarding priorities in autism research. POAC responded with these comments.

Regional:

Beginning in 2006, POAC (then the Verbal Behavior Interest Group) began to advocate to Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) to protect and expand the use of ABA home programs as part of early intervention.

Testimony to SECAC
Proposed Guidelines

In response, Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) issued a written policy about early intervention that includes the home programming and research-based practices such as ABA.

POAC met with BCPS special education leadership regarding the guidelines and asked these questions.

Other Regional Public School Policies:

BCPS has elaborated on their home program policy by creating a home program resource guide which includes guidelines regarding the role of early intervention assistants (EIAs).

The Howard county Public School System (HCPSS) also has a written policy regarding in-home ABA programs.

The Maryland State Department of Education’s Autism Task Force Report calls for 15-30 hours of direct intervention for children with autism.

Other Resources:

The National Academy of Sciences recommends 25 hours of active engagement in early intervention in their book Educating Children With Autism (2001).

The Connecticut chapter of Families for Effective Autism Treatment (FEAT) has a valuable collection of research papers supporting ABA interventions. You can read the full text of the papers here. Another good source for papers and also the autism task force reports of other States is Autism Library.

A summary of autism-related court decisions is available here.
Many additional resources regarding dispute resolution, due process, court cases and overall advocacy are available at Wrightslaw.

For citations to other important research supporting the effectiveness of ABA for autism, see POAC's selected bibliography of sources.

Statements from leading authorities regarding ABA.

What the research says about the role of parents.