Charlie's had ten years of an excellent education---and that means he needs many more years of equally solid support now and in the years to come.

@Kristina.You make an excellent point about getting an excellent education due to solid support. Before they passed IDEA in the 1970's parents faced the same situation you are facing at age 21. No safety net at all.

 Before IDEA there really were no support services from birth to ?? except institutionalization. Kids stayed at home. Some non-profits might do speech. No network of support organizations. Parents were left on their own. No safety net of supports and services.

"Before IDEA, many children like Lee were denied access to education and opportunities to learn. For example, in 1970, U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities, and many states had laws excluding certain students, including children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded, from its schools.
Thirty Years of Progress in Educating Children with Disabilities Through IDEA
http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/leg/idea/history30.html

By requiring schools to educate our kids the IDEA law now provides services until age 21 (varies by state). Also provisions in the law(transitional services) require the school to develop a plan/implement services the child will need as an adult before age 21.

What is the Lanterman Development Disabilities Services Act?
http://www.ggrc.org/rr_lanterman_act.htm
The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act (Lanterman Act) is that part of California law that sets out the rights and responsibilities of persons with developmental disabilities, and creates the agencies, including regional centers, responsible for planning and coordinating services and supports for persons with developmental disabilities and their families.

Section 4501 of the Lanterman Act states: "The State of California accepts a responsibility for persons with developmental disabilities and an obligation to them which it must discharge. Affecting hundreds of thousands of children and adults directly, and having an important impact on the lives of their families, neighbors and whole communities, developmental disabilities present social, medical, economic and legal problems of extreme importance."

Section 4620: "In order for the state to carry out many of its responsibilities as established in this division, the state shall contract with appropriate agencies to provide fixed points of contact in the community for persons with developmental disabilities and their families, to the end that such persons may have access to the facilities and services best suited to them throughout their lifetime. It is the intent of this division that the network of regional centers for persons with developmental disabilities and their families be accessible to every family in need of regional center services.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterman_Developmental_Disabilities_Act

My brother got put into the system for Medicare, Vocational Rehab etc. after I couldn't take care of him and my autistic child at the same time. The hospital social worker had to put him in the system because they couldn't discharge him homeless. The hospital social worker said if the school didn't put you in the system then the only other way of getting services is by being homeless.

So what makes IDEA in the 1970's possible in the first place? The cries of parents saying that they pay taxes too. The outrage from these parents that it was unfair that their child wasn't allowed an education.

I believe that if all the autistic groups could work together there could be a big outrage about adult services/supports. Otherwise we are splintered and disorganized. No one understands what we are about or what we want.

There is conflict without agreement. Our children need help now.

I think we really forget that there was a time before IDEA here in the US --- seems unimaginable, but sometimes I think we need to think of what things would be like without IDEA and its protections, so we can best focus on what we need to work towards.

@Kristina."so we can best focus on what we need to work towards".

Right on!!

@Anne.
And also I think right now for many of us on the spectrum, when things are going well it is because there are so many little things all precisely in place - like we can go from "okay" to "crisis" very easily due to support systems just not being there for us, etc.

You make an excellent point. Support systems in place when crisis happens.

@Dinah. "The motives of some of the people pushing this Bill may be more commercial than principled?"

Since legislation is influenced at times by special interest groups I think you say an important point.

There should be some type of guidelines so that children are not harmed. It should be clear to everyone when behavior modication should be used or not used in treatment programs and in the classroom.

Usually positive behavior intervention plans in the classroom use a check list format and there are several people signing off at the end of the checklist. There is ongoing monitoring and evaluation if done properly. Parents are involved in each step of the process.

Mr Doherty expresses surprise that I would make a comment not applying to adults in the context of these comments, and suggests I am ABA obsessed.
If he will take a look at any of the three websites I've been associated with since the late 1990s he will find evidence of well over a decade of campaigning re issues which impact on autistic adults such as medication and access to information technology.  (www.autismandcomputing.org.uk ; www.APANA.org.uk, now at www.neurodiversityinternational.org.uk/APANA/ ; www.autreach.i)
He will not, I believe, find any mention of ABA/IBI on any of those sites.  It is true, however that I was the researcher employed on this:Jordan R., Jones G., and Murray D. 1998 Educational Interventions for Children with Autism. DfEE Research Report 77. Norwich : HMSO, which concluded that ABA should not be seen as the "gold standard".
It is perhaps not me who has the ABA obsession?

"It is perhaps not me who has the ABA obsession?"

Indeed, to suggest that you are 'obsessively anti-ABA' is to show ignorance of who you are in the autism world and what you have done for people with autism. Your work - unlike Harolds - is easily found through google.

Aside from your comment being about behaviour modification programmes in general, you were also talking about having other options on the table (such as assistive devices, assistive communication devices, environmental adaptations SIT etc).

To accuse you of ignoring the issues because you appear to wish to address them all is just another silly claim from Harold to go on top of the pile of silly Haroldisms.