The School Support Program provides information, expertise, training and resources to school board and school authority staff through four key service areas:

1. Consultation

Expertise in educating students with autism can be offered through a number of consultation services, which may include:

• Supporting individual teachers, teaching assistants and other school board and school authority staff by recommending effective teaching and behavioural strategies for the classroom
• Participating in school based learning communities
• Linking educators to other community services for children and youth with autism

2. Training

The training sessions provided to school board personnel help children and youth with autism to achieve their educational goals.

At a school’s request, presentations on topics that meet their individual needs are offered. For example:

• Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Introduction to Applied Behaviour Analysis
• Social Skills
• Visual Strategies

3. Resource Development and Distribution

The School Support Program may assist school board personnel in identifying, developing and sharing resource materials. This may involve sharing existing professional materials or identifying and developing new, specialized materials.

4. Connections for Students

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services have developed Connections for Students, a new collaborative approach to implementing a seamless transition for children exiting their Intensive Behavioural Intervention program to full time school entry.

This service begins approximately six months before a child enters school on a full time basis with the formation of a school-based transition team, and will continue for up to six months after. 

Transition team members include the school principal, parents, teacher, School Support Program consultants, school board staff with applied behaviour analysis (ABA) expertise, and other team members as required.

The services provided by the School Support Program consultants may include information gathering & sharing, collaborative planning, observation in both the AIP and school classroom, and educational staff support through training and resource development.