Task Force on Autism
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- October 2, 2026
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
4:03
Welcome everybody good morning before we start I'd like to
take a moment to recognize that today is the first day of autism awareness monthn and so I wore my blue today in honor of that so I'm happy that we have a meeting today on this wonderful day. do you have any remarks? more some
too Yes she did all right all right let's adopt our
minutes from last meeting January13,2026. Can I get a OK all in favor say
aye all in favor say no the ayes have it
motion carries right today we have a very robust meeting today we
have a presentation from the University of Arkansas program supporting students with autism
and other disabilities if ok we gonna I'm gonna say these names correctly right?
OK. today we have dean mommy said chevili
and we have doctor Coharchick. all right if
Speaker 17
5:48
good morning, good morning everyone we're very excited to be here and honored to make this presentation. My name is Kate Maiseashvili and my colleague here Doctor Suzanneohartzek we and we represent the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health professions they the collegelege ofducation a little bit before we talk about the program the collegelege of Education and healthalth professions that's the name indicates we prepare students for careers in education and healthcare from
teaching nursing education policy leadership athletic training exercise science recreation and sport management public health I'm sure I'm believing occupational therapy, speech pathology so it's a very comprehensive education and health college we have over6,000 students we graduate about 1400 educators and healthcare professionals every year and
we're very proud of that about350 faculty and staff members very proud of the work that they are doing training this caring professionals and improving education and healthcare in Arkansas well we we are here to talk about the two programs for our students with autism and other disabilities I I must say that we have several other programs in
the college research outreach that also focus on disability studies and disability services autism waiver programme uharrenurnett here leads our partners for inclusive communities so but these are the two programs that focus on our support our students primarily on campus so that's why we're
here at the first program we're gonna talk about is the empowergra you can see on the slide it is it's not really an acronym but then let us do represent educate motivate, prepare opportunity workplace readiness employment and responsibility and the ashley Bradley is the director of the program the program launched in 2017
dean uhhom Smith at at that time put a committee together in 2016 to think about a new program that would support nonres seeking students who wanted to gain college experience that there was a lot of support from university leadership faculty and staff and the program launched in 2017 with three students so it is a nondegre four year do I oh
nondegree four year inclusive postsecondary education program for young adults between the ages of 18 and24 with mild intellectual disabilities who require a limited supports so the students were in the program they they demonstrate that they can safely live independently they can hold onto the employment and
socially integrate and their program provides the full scale immersive college experience nondegre it's a nonderee program and it is approved by the US Department of Education as a comprehensive transition and postsecondary program and this allows students to be eligible for financial aid this type of the program you see on many campuses there are300 of
them across the country right now when the program started it will probably at that time according to Dean Smith it was about maybe 100,150 th3 out of 16 SEC institutions have a similar program so except Ole Miss University of Florida and University of Texas everyone else has a program like this in the state there are four programs University of
Arkansaskansas Stateulaski Tech and southern Arkansas University also have this program and the program focuses on our providing college experience independent living skills and preparing for employment employment and with the students becoming fully functioning at adults this is really the primary focus of the program and Dr Koharzek will talk about this
a little more. The program started with 11 other thing I would say the program started with significant support from uhilltonoundation this is the foundation out of Dallas but the the two sisters who managed the foundation they are a graduates of our college and over time they've generously supported that this program from establishing a
faculty fellowship that doctoroharik holds to having endowed scholarship s and also operational endowment to support the program. right I'm gonna pass it on to doctorctor Korharczek to talk about more about the services that the program provides. thank you dean Suzanne Kuharczyk I am associate
Speaker 21
11:55
professor of special education a proud researcher in the area of
Speaker 23
11:59
autism for many years. I am a
department head of the department of curriculum and instruction in which I'm a very proud faculty advisor for the empower program and uhlisa Green who leads our autism support program which I'll talk about shortly is a faculty member. So, we are thrilled to pres represent the incredible work that that staff does in addition to theillton support that really built the program its inception other ways that the program is supported is
through fee based services so the students pay5,000 dollars a semester to receive the additional comprehensive services in addition to tuition tuition is75% of that tuition comes back to the program to be able to create all of the important services and supports that student s receive. There are a number of scholarships that are provided from theillton Foundation as well as individual contributions we have a new business
that is building a scholarship for the empower program so there's multiple ways for students to offset the additional cost for the comprehensive services that they um, get, which I'll talk about in a second. So as dean said 2017 started with three students since that time we've had 15 graduates that have their names inscribed on our senior walk. you may know that that is an important tradition of ours and we're very proud to have their names in those sidewalks
currently in this current semester we have 28 students across freshmen through senior year. in terms of experiences that that students receive as the dean talked about we really want to make sure that students get the full range of experiences from their education so that student and and to that end students take 15 hours per semester of credit hours,6 of those are in power courses so they're courses that where they are learning to be independent where they're learning financial
skills where they're learning skills important for employment for example as well as traditional classes that they're taking at the university and those courses and and the plan for those 120 hours that they complete by the end is based on a per personcent plan that is developed and rechecked every so often with the team and family as appropriate for the student as well as other people who are important to them. another important aspect of that personcented plan is the self
determination processes that are built into those um, into those experiences so that we're always making sure that we're leading from the experience of the students and following their lead in terms of making decisions around courses around the experiences that are important to them as well as the resources that they need as they learn who they are just like any student at the University of Arkansas andE campus who they are through those four years and those things change and our students are taking
classes in our ag programs our Fulbright programs in math and and English and learning how to be good pre-educators and those sorts of things. independence is another important part of their experience so students live on campus at Morgan Hall for two years with support from a residential mentor who is receives a stipend and is typically somebody who's getting a graduate degree and one of our programs also in
the college like vocational rehabilitation and social work and those sorts of things that makes sense for them in terms of building their own experiences and obviously just like any students that is a really critical experience that students have in terms of living on campus they also have supports for social engagement making sure that they are the kind of getting the razor back experience that any student is getting at the university going based on what their interests are going to sports or not going to sports
sitting at the coffee shop making sure they're getting to classes on time navigating the complexity of a large campus all those things we are currently in the process of and have been for many years of working with our greek life to continue to build inclusive experiences within sororities especially at as we move forward and then looking to grow that they have had a number of experiences over the years that have been embedded within the sisterhood of those greek houses and we are
looking to codify those experiences and then importantly employment just like all of our students so across the four years they're getting more and more experience and workbased experiences that prepare them for their future lives again based on that personcented plan. So in those first two years they're getting a lot of service learning and volunteering just like any other student at the university and then as they move into their junior year and senior year they're expected to move into internships which are more sustained employment
among one of the 20 at this point places across the community where we have memorandum of agreements in terms of the expectations between the student their career coach and the employer or the hopefully future employer mentors and interns are really important part of empower we have a really strong group of mentors across various groups
from peer mentors and those residential life mentors and career coaches that support their success eer mentors are there to hang out to cru to help the students to be a part of the community of the college andFL and the surrounding area so they are doing the kinds of things that students do together going to places hanging out at the union those sorts of things residential mentors as I mentioned are do get paid and are expected to be
that really check in and additional support and additional in addition to what housing already provides and then career interns are supporting the success of those students across their volunteer and then and their internship experiences as they move forward. So really an important group of people that are in and of themselves get resources so they get credit hours for for doing some of that work they are also getting service learning credits and learning a great deal
about themselves and who they want to be in their future careers. Those internship sites I already mentioned, 20 placements that we currently have MOUs with across northwest Arkansas and by the senior year we're expecting students depending on what their needs are to be working uh6 to20 hours a week engaged in that work. We also have agreements with vocational rehabilitation Arkansas and Texas specifically and depending on where the students are with their home
state to make sure that students it's not just a graduation that we have a handoff and a transition for that student once they get into their back to their home environment or wherever they choose to live through that process.
Speaker 25
19:39
and that career mentorship so that is the information about empower and another program
Speaker 17
19:53
of autism or autism support program which is a similar program to empower but the main difference is the autism support programme is forre seeking students so students in this program they are admitted into the university like any other students and they are pursuing a degree program and that could be in our college or in any of the other academic colleges on campus that by and this autism support program provides intensive support services from academics
to so services related to helping them to live independently and kind of provide social supports they director doctorlisa Green has been with a program from its beginning she has a a PhD in developmental psychology and really develop the program and launched the program in 2012 and has been the director in that role since then which has provided tremendous
stability that with that program and even she developed the academic coaching which is their signature program that and support program that they provide to the students and doctoroharzik we'll talk more about some of the details of the types of services that the program provides students are in a in a those
Speaker 23
21:20
students are in all types of degree programs mathematics, engineering so
that academic coaching is really critical to and supporting their success we know that the students who are degrees seeking students with autism struggle with being able to complete a four year degree and so we're really passionate about ensuring that those students have the supports they need when they need them. So some students come for their first semester to help with that transition onto campus and then realize I could do this on my own and move on without support otherthers stay on for
Speaker 28
21:58
the full4 or5 years that they're on campus depending on what their trajectory is but I will talk about those 43 areas of really
Speaker 23
22:07
strong support that are provided that academic coaching is really important. There's5 hours a day where students have access to scheduled time with an academic coach and Do Green to making sure that they know what is in their syllabus that they all of these types of things that may be challenging particularly for a student with autism in terms of the
complexities of knowing what's in a syllabus. I did a presentation for our faculty a few weeks ago in terms of supporting neurodiverse students on campus and I asked our students from the autism support programme. what would you like your faculty to know and the number one thing they said was put it on the syllabus, make sure it is what you mean and then do the thing on the syllabus which was really connected to a department head of would expect so that was that was we were well aligned but that's the kinds of things
that also students struggle with right? those uncertainties those complexities of communication that may be happening. The other challenge is and this is for both groups of students whether in empower or ASp is that the types of supports and services that they may be have had from K through 12 particularly in high school, very differently as they move into the college experience because laws are different in terms of IdA governing one and ADA governing the other in addition to
Speaker 21
23:31
academic coaching provided by four academic coaches in addition to Doctor Green students get peer
Speaker 23
23:36
cou peer coaching so this is you know checking in on those social skills supporting challenges that may be happening helping students to engage in university life and giving them access to informal or formal groups that might be important to them that otherwise you need a little bit of a gatekeeper to open up sometimes and those are typically undergraduate students and then we have career coaches
who help to support the students and those are typically graduate students as well as the academic coaching students who help students to transition to their future employment recently Doctor Green added a career launch course that all students take to really have direct planning in terms of resume writing making sure everybody has a Linkedinn account that is that is appropriate aligned with their future goals and that there's a relationship with our career
services on campus so that they can get that support that they need in addition to exploring future career options and doing some of that preemployment skill development within internships as well so lots of fully encompassing services in terms of students since 201el 70 students have been supported by autism support programme currently about 16 students are in the program and those that are graduated have a
very healthy GPA which we are very proud of because again students with autism without the supports really tend to struggle academically if they do are able to move through the complexities of a campus. Funding Asp similarly to empower there's a5,000 dollars fee for those services there are also scholarships that are support students and to offset some of that cost and those fees are pretty typical to other
universities in a similar size kind of in the middle of the road for these types of services and that is what we have
Speaker 33
25:48
I will add about the the fee the5000 fee that's that started that
Speaker 17
25:54
was the feat in 2012 and it has not increased since then so and we continue to do in a cost analysis and with our peer
programs to make sure that this is still affordable for our students and we're proud that we have not we've been able to continue the fee for more than a decade without an increase. I'm sorry thank you for the
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
26:24
wonderful presentation. do we have any questions from the task force? I have a question or two. when you mentioned the5,000
dollars is that per semester or is
Speaker 17
26:43
that for the whole program for for both programs it is per semester obviously the students pay tuition depending on whether they are Arkansas students or out of state students the regular tuition and then this is the fee that is for the program per semester I could see that
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
27:01
being a hindrance for some families so
how do we eliminate that5,000 dollars.
Speaker 17
27:14
thing that we we do is provide scholarships and fundraise for a scholarship support so that the students get get financial financial support both stu both students in both programs have access to financial aid also and we our the fundraising team in the college on campus this is one of our signature
priorities even for we are fund raising for the empower programme even for our one day one university campaign that's coming up next week and that this is the program that we are highlighting it's to to fundraise so scholarships is our best way to support and reduce that that cost and not not increase it keep it to the minimum that is
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
28:12
needed to operate the program and also another question so the empower so these are two separate programs or
do they merge together or they just they're two separate programs they're two separate
Speaker 28
28:27
programs for two very different populations of people they do merge in terms of sharing of ideas and
Speaker 23
28:33
resources and they both teams are in the same building so that's kind of informal support certainly is there and wanting
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
28:46
one more question have a year old and so he'll be 18 soon so if me and my husband decide to let him go touaA walk me through that will he have his own dorm? Will he have to share with somebody the one on one is it one person one mentor to for one student or is it a a shared experience how does that work? Are you talking specifically about empower
Speaker 28
29:11
or either of them so for an
empowered student that would look like two years of expectation in terms of living in
Speaker 23
29:22
the dorm versus the autism support program student which has the same expectations as any other degrees seeking student which is one year they're on campus as in their freshman year in terms of the mentorship and support again empower that is based on a personcented plan you know so really thinking about what makes sense for this person as well as who are our cadre
of mentors there's about 120 peer mentors every semester for power so and they have a specific interests that so we would try to match up right in terms of what their interests are and what they do but we are expecting students to be independently navigating the campus and independently getting to classes so that those peer mentors aren't meant to be like the like a pair ofprofessional type of staff that they might have been in thought about in terms of K through 1el
experiences we really want these to be more geared towards friendships that are supported and well trained so those mentors get significant training so residential mentors get training from our housing office and peer mentors get training obviously all from empower but also from student life to support them and and build skills for them and
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
30:41
art in the dorm are there together with everybody or is there a section
that's slated only for these students are they integrated with the rest of the
Speaker 21
30:53
population. they're integrated with the rest of the population again depending on the needs of the students so there are
Speaker 23
30:58
students who wish to be closer together and and so that plan is made depending on what the structure is so maybe a suite might have3 guys or and another in the women's hall maybe there's a woman who's alone and then a woman next door and so on so that is very individualized in terms of supports and planning but to
the to with access to that resident residential mentor so there needs to be some proximity there so they can get
Speaker 28
31:25
the supports that they need but we really strive for as much independence as possible because that's the goal. So that
Speaker 56
31:46
sorry Suzie is it is it in before they're enrolled and
in like a update yearly. how does that that work so the personcent
Speaker 23
31:55
plan is the first thing that's done when students get on campus so we want them to again to have that full student experience so they are driving up with the rest of the students parking and unloading and right so there is an orientation that happens a few weekend before start of the semester but that those personcent planned happened in that first part of the first semester and
then they're updated yearly because things change and they're also updated when something changes to there's a need that arises that is unexpected or or we're finding that students are making progress you know whether that's academically in their classes or in other
Speaker 59
32:55
And maybe you already addressed this and I kind of missed it if I'm confusing empower with ASP please let me know but when they join and I'm assuming ASP programme like do they get a structured plan with goals with their mentor and is it something that is measured similar to like an IP that they get measured throughout their program to see if they're achieving what they need to achieve.
Speaker 23
33:21
foreign power yes there is a program and data is collected
because we want to make sure that we are using database decision making and those personcent plans and thinking about progress and there are specific goals that students write through that self-determination process around their independence their academics and their future employment that gets checked for students in the autism support programme that plan is really based on the students because they are degrees seeking students so it's far more tied to that plan of
theirs. and then really focusing and making sure that their academic needs are met and their peer needs are met and that they have a plan with that with Doctor Green who checks it with your annually and makes that academic plan for their future because of the tight knit group that that that provides it is not quite as structured as the empower plan
Speaker 17
34:28
students to stay with the program the whole time so they they come in as empowered students nondegre seeking for the college experience so they stay with the program the whole time. they are on campus but for ASB student some students choose once they get to campus maybe the first year to be part of the ASB program but then they might might realize that they are you know they don't need these supports they could just because they also have
access to all the other services that they university provides from Koreaer counseling to academic advising and360 advising and all of that so they could decide that they don't need this intensive autism specific supports so they may just stop the the ASB part of the program and then they may reengage later on if they have a difficult semester so it's a a more fluid that's exactly right
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
35:34
thank you for your presentation. Next on the agenda we have pulaski technical collegelege3d program. we have Doctor Catherine Miller here to speak about it if you could come up
Welcome if you can both introduce yourselves Good morning.
Speaker 72
36:21
I'm Doctor Mary Catherine Miller. I'm the red program director and I'm Jan Lewandowski I'm
Speaker 73
36:27
the executive director for culinary arts and hospitalspitality. Thank you for inviting us today to
Speaker 75
36:36
speak with you we're delighted to be here to share
about our program Our3d program is a comprehensive transition and postsecondary program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Students are enrolled in culinary baking and hospitality courses for three years with the goal of being gainfully employed by the end of their time with us Be beyond teaching them the technical skills we also seek to teach them independent living skills, financial literacy skills and professionalism skills
learning objectives for our3d program include demonstrating growth and independent living skills participation in academically enriched environments becoming active members of the college campus and gaining experience leading to competitive employment the majority of our programme's classes are integrated meaning students are enrolled with traditional students this creates a natural mentoring process and support system that
takes place within the classroom while they are learning and they are with their chefs Our3d faculty and staff provide faded support over the course of three years. what this means is that by a student's final year we should we should be providing little to no oversight to ensure that they are workforce ready. and then all of our classrooms have certified chef instructors teaching. Our students can choose from one
of three tracks baking, culinary or hospitality before they begin their specialty courses in their chosen track they all have to take general courses to prepare them for their more advanced courses These general courses include introduction to culinary and bakingry, food sanitation food one and food 2. o und ations of baking and pastry foundations of culinary art, product Id and quantity purchasing
and healthy foods and nutrition. If a student chooses the baking track they're going to learn everything from basic baking science and skills to confectionery. These upperle courses in this track include advanced techniques in cake decorating and assembling artisan breads candies and chocolates if our students choose a culinary track they will proceed
into food3 andood4, which is fine dining skills and plating. otherther upperle courses include student's learning how to create their own soups, stocks, sauces, condiments, learning how to make precision cuts on various meats and seafoods as well as learning how to make international cuisine. if our students pick the hospitality track they will get a blend of both culinary and baking and they will also take other classes that are pointed
towards tourism, catering and the restaurant industry. all tracks include courses such as introduction to financial literacy professional conduct an internship course that happens at Pulaski technical College and then two external internships that happen in the greater LittleRock area or the greater Arkansas area within professional kitchens as well. Since the programmes start we
have enrolled 97 students and we have celebrated57 graduations. in the next coming month May2026, we will celebrate five more graduations It's our goal to graduate5 to7 students each spring semester. Currently all of our enrolled students are set to graduate on time including the5 that will be graduating in May. Our success rates for class completion meaning a student passed a college credit class
with either an A, a B, or a C and did not have to retake the class has historically stayed above 89%. The graph on the left hand side of the page is a summary of the statistics I just gave you on the previous slide in addition it has the statistic about our our completion rate uh, which is a compilation of the enrolled headcount divided by the completed and ongoing
number which gives us the completion rate of74%. I would like to highlight our upcoming graduating classes statistics. our graduating seniors have a cumulativegPpa of3.55 80% of them have achieved the chancellor's and dean's lists distinction, meaning they have an excellent GPA. they've earned45 college credits. These are college classes not audit classes.
and then they've completed 15 internships our graduating seniors are already either employed full time part time or as special event workers what this means is that they are already earning paychecks, they're building their resumes and they're being active members in the community. As you know not all outcomes are measurable. some of the most important things in life simply can't be quantified.
More than data our students learn skills that help them become independent citizens ki s that build their confidence encourage self-addvocacy grow their social skills and sharpen their problem solving processes. These students learn how to speak up when something isn't right and they learn how to persevere when something feels hard. and they learn how to collaborate even when it's a little bit uncomfortable they learn that mistakes are not
failures but they're stepping stones. but if we had to quantify some of the wonderful milestones that our students are achieving on their journey to independence we would want to highlight that many of our students are serveva certified which is essential for a kitchen. they're certified fundamentals cooks they're certified fundamentals pastry cooks. their baking desserts or cooking dishes for special events.
they're being employed full time at restaurants across the greater LittleRock area and as of this most recent semester our spring semester, they are being inducted into the country's first culinary baking and hospitality student organization Sigma Epsilon phi. Students who are inducted into this student organization have earned and maintained a3.0gPA or it could be higher they've met all the same qualifications as their peers.
the beauty of this student organization is that our students now have the networking ability across the country for people who were in kitchens or bake shops across America. Other important outcomes I would like to highlight is our student's job attainment and retention. not only do they get jobs but they keep them for years. it's common for our students to get a job offer while they are in their practicum placement or right after their graduation.
while we're still updating some of our most recent data as that's always an ongoing process we are able to confirm that we have7 students who are celebrating seven years of continuous employment at places like Davidsburgger's, Chick fil A, Chicken salad Chi and Gina's cattering. We have3 graduates who are celebrating almost5 years atluecake. and we have two graduates who are celebrating four years of continuous employment and three
years of seasonal employment at Community bakery. what you are currently seeing on the screen is a compilation of academic and personal milestones these are our students enjoying oncampus events with our community and with their peers. you're seeing events fromBuil an animalal, masterchef live our Halloweentheed knife kit ceremony where students receive their knife kit in their first year. and other special events that
our students volunteer at within the community. Our program always needs partnerships in the community for more practicum s placements locations and opportunities. the more our students network with growing and flourishing businesses the greater the likelihood that they will receive full time employment upon graduation. this means they can be contributing citizens in any city that they choose to live in. but the red program can't do it alone.
We need business partners that believe in the future and in the ability of our students just as much as we do. so what do these sites look like? well they are culinarycented or bakingcented or hospitality centered they are patient and they subscribe to a teaching mentality where it's ok to ask questions and learn from their mistakes they believe in growth and opportunities for all of their employees. In our current state the3d
program can serve 2 students at maxx at a time. we currently have4 faculty and staff members total3 faculty and 1 staff member. who teach and assist students in the lecture classrooms and in the kitchen labs. creating new partnerships doesn't just stop at practicum placement we would love to have extended opportunities outside of that. Students and parents ask us every year what they can do over the summer or over the break to
help make sure these skills stay sharp and to give them additional opportunities to practice their independent living skills this could be anything from activities to workshops to part time jobs to camps or even trips what we need as stewards of the red program is to know when and where these types of things are happening. the more information we can share the more skills, opportunities and exposure that our students will get before they graduate.
Our future goals include expanding into more departments at Pulaski Tech. we would love to explore other class offerings or tracts where our students have a strong interest. this of course means a lot of planning on our part and a lot of conversations to be had which we do look forward to. Another future goal we have is accreditation. we are currently preparing for accreditation with the inclusive higher education accreditation
council. IHE AC is an accrediting agency for college and university programs for students with intellectual disabilities. while our culinary arts and hospitality management institute is accredited with the American Culinary Federation our program seeks to gain an additional accreditation and the purpose of pursuing this is to ensure and demonstrate quality assurance and programming for all of our students.
if we are credited we would be among some of the first colleges in the country to achieve this distinction. As you may have recognized in our presentation we have lofty goals and we have exceptional students thank you again for inviting us to share about our wonderful program we're proud of our
students and we're proud of their achievements. Thank you. thank you for that wonderful presentation
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
49:18
do we have any questions from our task forcece
Speaker 84
49:21
members Thanks as you're going through the success rates I was just kind of curious you know between 89%,100%,94%. how is success measured and what prevents that from being 100 across the board is that the integrated classes that pull students down or is it just not being able to complete basically all the the things that you got to complete when they're learning all the tactile skills of of the culinary arts
Speaker 75
49:54
it's a blend of all of the tactile skills that they'll need to learn there is a lot of diverse skills as far as how they hold things how they prepare things they have a rubric that we go by that it's not just points on cutting something or cooking something but we're also measuring their reliability, their dependability, their professionalism the 89% is a composite of students with As's, bs and Cs. so if they have an A, a B or a
C, they pass the class between the 89 and 100% we average each of those to each student together and that's how we get our median score of the mid nineties what are the integrated
Speaker 84
50:43
classes? So apart from the the baking, the cooking hospitality. could you go into what the integrated classes are and how much weight do those have in terms of graduation success. Sure, absolutely so our
Speaker 75
50:59
integrated classes really take hold in their 2nd and3rd year. The1st year we're getting them acclimated to being in a kitchen because as we all know working in a kitchen whether it's at home or in a professional setting is tough work. it's not something you walk into and get the hang of within your first week of classes so it does take them about a year to acclimate to all the demands of a kitchen and we are teaching to the American Culinary Federation standard so the first year they are in3d only classes with their3d peers.
and these are our foundation level classes in their 2nd year and3rd year the the majority of their classes all but for about one class is integrated. so they are taking food one and food two and artisan breads and all of the other wonderful classes like candies and chocolates that are difficult courses alongside their traditional peers. and so they are measured by their own rubric but they're also
kept up with the syllabus and with the lesson plans as their traditional peers does that answer your question well? what is the tuition our tuition for the entire three year program is $27,135. It's5,700 dollars a semester.
so one way we help offset that cost is we encourage all of our students to apply for the Arkansas governor's higheration transition programme the gets. We like to walk around and say did you get your gets yet? that's a fun way for us to remind students to apply for it if students have trouble applying for it we sit down with them and we help them apply because it's really important that they get that scholarship in order to keep their costs low in addition to that we also encourage all of our students to fill out FfaFAs to earn any money that they can from that
and then if they belong to Arkansas rehab services they also contribute to the student's bill Many times our students don't owe anything after all
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
53:25
of those services kick in which is very
nice. I have a question. So you mentioned earlier in your presentation that the getting community partnership partnerships has
been difficult what are some of the the hurdles there when you're trying to do that establish that that's an excellent question we really
Speaker 75
53:46
try to match our students with a place that they want to work as well as a place we think they'll do well in so that means we have to establish continuous partnerships so as part of our personcented planning in the second year we sat down with students and we sit down with their parents and we ask them where would you ultimately like
to work one day. what's a place that you think oh it would be really cool if I could take my skills into here and we make a top three or a top5 list and then what we try to do at that point is we reach out to those places we talk to them about our students and then we see if this is going to be a good fit so the continuous partnerships to make sure we're getting the right fit for our student is where we need that additional support we have partnerships with lots of places that would eagerly take our student and sometimes that's
what we do if you know they're top three is not something that is going to be a good fit then we call one of our other places and we say hey we have a wonderful student who's going to be a great fit for you. Do you have room for
them this semester and we get the internships and the practicum set up in that capacity. ultimately we'd love to send them somewhere that they are excited to go and would like to be in and you mentioned
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
55:04
Community bakery that's in my district so that's I'm gonna have to reach out to them and thank them for that. how many students do
Speaker 75
55:11
they have there currently? to my knowledge we have two that are currently employed one who's been continuously employed for four years and one who's a seasonal
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
55:22
worker for them during their rush times great OK any other questions concerns all right well thank you did you want to say
anything? wonderful job and my daughter she she's getting after me because she wants me to sign her up for baking classes this summer.
Speaker 74
55:42
Culinary camp yes we have culinary camp as long as they're 18 or younger they can sign up and come
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
55:51
get some wonderful salads she wants to advance one with the breads and croissants and stuff, yes right thank you
right next on the agenda we have a presentation on supporting
loan lifelong success community will you come up we have Ashton Mccomb Mary Ann McIntyre bettemccombs and Run Cook. if you can introduce yourselves thank you.
Ashton Mccombs
Unverified
56:44
Good morning my name's Ashton Mcombs. I'm the executive director for a
Speaker 106
56:50
sunity. Hi, I'm Mariamcatarre I'm the clinical director for SlS Community.
Ashton Mccombs
Unverified
57:07
for the opportunity to present on our programs I'm gonna cover just a broad organizational overview our future vision.
Marianne is gonna cover specific programs and then Ron and betts are gonna cover personal stories. so SlS community the SLS stands for supporting lifelonges for neurodiversion adults. we are a fayettevillefounded501c3 nonprofit we're a medicaid waiver service provider a community support systems provider which all will get into that provider type later on our mission is to support lifelong success for a nerd version adults and their
families by making essential resources accessible to all so the the big vision that we're building towards is a live work play community in Fafayetteville where residential vocational health and wellness community and clinical resources are accessible and affordable for nerd virgin adults to to reach their full potential we're grounded in just providing opportunities for neurodiversion adults to integrate with the community flourish and find their own path to self- actualization. so it's part of this vision
it's a partnership with a future development called Katosprings I've got more specific slides on that later on but integrating housing services employment opportunities clinical services and then community options within the context of this mixeduse development called Katosprings right now we're early we're growing into this vision we have a residential model that's grounded in appliedha analysis and and wholeheal principles we have a day program that we're we're developing and then we have various community initiatives and advo
advocacy events they'll cover later on so our why bets will cover our our Genesis story a little bit later but really it was just grappling with with these questions that that every family that has a loved one with with Idd deals with as they go into adulthood and so the impetus was really that that services cliff that can exist in adulthood where will they live after high school's age is it a place they feel valued? what will they do with their days? will they be inspired by
their environment? Can they develop skills and get a job har ness ing their their wonderful unique skills and then who will help to guide them and do a healthy lifestyle so they too can have best life outcomes so really started with with arent searchch you know for for answers for some of those questions and then a lot of these these statistics as well that just kind of illustrate the challenges that this population can face in adulthood many of of these I'm sure individuals
in this room are familiar with I won't go through each one but really we kind of view a lot of these challenges in adulthood is is kind of a four legged stool so housing services employment and then just relationships and and your your natural supports really if you were to take any one of those legs out the stool's gonna topple under people that are oftentimes relying on on just SsI for cost of living and housing hard to have stable housing based on
that it's hard to have a hold down a job without stable housing and have the additional income to to have stable housing so they're all kind of interacting people get oftentimes their relationships and their network from work and so I think all these factors interact and and are really social determinants of health that are upstream of of some issues down the road that can affect healthcare and and all kinds of things so we kind of have taken that holistic approach about how can we
aggregate resources in a way that that can help this population in adult the vision that we are building towards is this collaborative partnership with the development team at Katosprings they're mission anchored in SlS's mission of including neurodivergent adults and so this is a 230 acre development in South Fayetteville. it's just one exit south of MLKboulevard if if y'all are familiar with Fayetville by Kessler Mountain
Regional Park and so it's gonna serve NWA broadly this is not a neurodivergent or disability only development but the intent is to have an integrated inclusive community where approximately 8% of the units will be allocated for neurodivergent adults dispersed throughout the development. we want to scale as the service provider on this development and then businesses that come and occupy the retail sites will provide job opportunities for neurodivergent adults and
then access to all the amenities of the the development as well so it's a a new urban design new urbanism is an architectural philosophy that basically facilitates the built environment to support relationships neighborliness walkability and and so that's that's kind of the grounding of this this development team there this has been an economic development project with the city of
Fayetteville for some of the funding of the initial infrastructure of the sewer and then the the initial road network throughout the city of Fayetteville and then a federal grant several years ago so that initial infrastructure is currently under development we're trying to scale as a service writer in advance of that to grow into the development which will be in a phase approach over many years 12 to fi5 years. but anticipated to be 1200 to1500 units with complimentary
commercial coffee shops corner stores bodegas and I think a key distinction is this is a community it's it's not a campus and so just want to make very clear this is not a the housing is going to be dispersed and integrated within this inclusive community this is not a place that's away or separate from the community really the the rate of units that were allocating for neurodivergent adults is approximately the the prevalence rate of of Idd amongst the
general population. we have a collective impact model so we want to bring in partners and kind of leverage this development as a a canvas to bring these
Ashton Mccombs
Unverified
1:03:42
different components we're we're kind of viewing this under liveivorplay themes so the the live component is housing there there's a real deficit of high quality and affordable housing for neo divergent adults integrating that within the community and
then the supported residential services which we're growing now and so Katosprings providing that venue for us to scale Employment opportunities we want to attract businesses that that already are in the neurodiversity hiring space but really as a development feature having any business that comes in incentivizing them to employ neurodivergent adults industry appropriate depending on the the company and then kind of bringing them
into a business network that we've started now with our supported employment calledgra supported employment program calledgramme Forge that Marianne will cover. and then this is just intended to be a really cool place for anybody to live and so it's it's there's trails mountain biking trails the the razorback greenway in northwest Arkansas this is really mile zero for the greenway so walkability emerging in nature access to the
Kesslermountain regional uhark where a lot of the youth sports are in Fayetteville. all those amenities are things that will will serve everyone that's there just a couple renders of of Kato spprings. I recognize this looks more like Pandora than Washington County but So where we are now we we finished our credentialing journey through the medicaid waiver system last year and so
we're starting to expand our our census we have a residential model we havegraorge we have growing community events and initiatives and that's our growth campaign is to continue to grow into this development we are nationally credited through the Council on Quality and Leadership that was a prerequisite for our application to be a community support systems provider which is a a
a revamp provider type under DHS that basically gives us access to both the CS waiver Communitymployment supports waiver and also the 1915 i waiver which is thehavial healthal waiver this provider type was revamped around the time we were going through initially the credentialing journey and with our grounding in ABA it seemed like a a great fit for future expansion and growth of innovative service models to serve individuals with more complex care needs
because it's it's kind of a onestop shop where you can access both the behavioral health side and then also the CS traditional IddhCbS services and that's just another slide on kind of the goals of the CSSp program and with that I'll I'll hand it off to Marianne to cover some of our
Speaker 119
1:06:55
programs we're excited to be able to share this with you today. This is a new program inaugurly year
Speaker 106
1:07:06
first cohort and we started with four individuals in august we have 9 now we think that's a pretty big rate increase in a single year. goal is to to create individualized state of the art vocational programming we're working with community partnerners to develop resources we follow the criteria that's established in order to look towards job placements some of these people are currently in volunteer positions we did just
have a first personson hired out of a volunteer position into a work position about two weeks ago. quite a hit. we were we were pleased to see that happen. it is an individualized program these people who have specific goals that are developed both by them and along the guidelines. I think I'm not great from talking from slides I think the thing that's important to remember is that we're not time bound so some of these people are going
to require different amounts of time to meet the goals that are established other programs have specific timelines we really don't have those. There's discovery stages there's career discovery. there is a job development plan there we teach the soft skills we're not teaching I loved what Pulaski had to share about culinary. we're not teaching hard skills we're teaching soft skills. we have some people in our program currently that have been
employed but are not employed currently and that's not a skilled deficit that that's a soft skill deficit that people that we have
Speaker 121
1:08:46
that have had jobs have the actual technical skills but they lack the soft skills we've
Speaker 106
1:08:52
reached out and our trying to make sure we have job coaches that are well trained. they went through a certification process we have two coaches and we have someone who coordinates that program, Heather Henderson she's not here today she's the active on site
coordinator. so you know the goal is next slide ashton we want the workplace to be neurodiverse so we've had some lunch chats with some community partners to try to help agencies understand why would you want what's the value in hiring a neurodivergent individual to form a neurodiverse composite within the workplace. so part of that is that we know that there's these people bring
specific benefits a lot of people with very specific skills and we have a workforce that needs people with specific skills so we are based out of a property that's conveniently located at the Kato Springs exit on the razorbackside. that was just kind of a really lucky moment. we're in a building that is under a city grant and we're able to to remain there for several years we hope in a a space that can accommodate about
20 probably 28 people at at any given time so it's a good space the overview for residential we started with residential first and the goal there is to to find a way that people can live long term so they don't have to hop around they're in a place that's gonna be meet their needs it's quality it's affordable they're in a we only have a single residence now it's a female residence in a regular house in a regular neighborhood and we are teaching life skills
out of that some of the some of those gals do different things during the day but they're all learning life skills we're kind of trying to to the slide the next slide I think is pretty good at display and this is kind of our mission. we don't want just a place to live but we want there to be an integration among health making sure these people are healthy from a dietary standpoint from an exercise standpoint, from a play standpoint they have specific goals those goals are written
in a way that considers what their interests are. we do a combination of what's important for them what's important to them to try to come up with a consolidated plan and it's measured by a database system so we have what we like to consider pretty highly trained workforce. we have the advantage of being in northwest Arkansas we have college students sometimes that are worked for us for several years we have people that be a deport a direct support professional
is their career and they're dedicated to what they're doing so we have a combination of what I would consider to be more professionally geared people and people that this is going to be their profession. that's kind of been a unique aspect I'm a board certifiedhavi analyst and we run this organization based on behavioral principles I'm an old speech path. I got my speech path people in the room here. I finally let my lapse girl so if I need somebody I'm coming for
you. and we want to make sure that people understand that appliedha analysis doesn't pertain to just children.body learned by learns by specific teaching practices, choice is key in that anytime there's choice available we provide choice. These girls are involved we had we created some of our own assessments because assessments are kind of in short supply for the adult population and one of those isreamcasting. so we have an opportunity to find out what would you like to
do if you could do anything not just in the workplace but in your life what would you like to do that's kind of a dreamcasting piece so we consolidate that information to specific goals and we teach people by those princi ple s we do we do have people with challenging behaviors several of the people on the staff besides me have worked with people with challenging behaviors so from a s standpoint of being able to maintain people in one place we have the skills I think
to take on some more challenging behavioral pieces like that I was ahead of myself wasn't from a s standpoint of being able to maintain people in one place we have the skills I think to take on some more challenging behavioral pieces like that I was ahead of myself wasn't one of the biggest problems I think most of you know is that sometimes individuals are not stable in their environment they they do something that ejects them and sometimes that's pretty rapid so we're trying to make sure that that's not the case. those are kind of the behaviors that we deal with and it's it's a pretty wide range. you might have figured out that we liked the word
flourish, we like the grow concept. we even have a garden in the backyard but not only that as we know that people grow and so our treatment plan is called a bloom print. it's different than the past this personcented plan we do our plan becomes part of their plan but ours is much more detailed and it does take the client's interests and what they want to do and a skilledbas and strengthbased. so we work
alongside the past we tend to have many more goals than they have so they tend to take part of ours and put it put them in and we work off kind of the remainder of those last couple are just wellness. we we're really committed to making sure that people are well, that they're well from a every standpoint that we could help them and that involves working and living successfully so kind of across these last domains all of those are considered
improving communication any way that we can, making sure there's lots of community engagement. they don't they don't stay in the house all day long. These people are out in the community they have volunteer opportunities. they do all the things that everyone else does. they just have support to do them a lot of creative activities and there's a whole stream of those that you can read at your leisure. I want to let the these people who have realli experience speak
Ashton Mccombs
Unverified
1:15:20
Oh that's right that's true was just to just a real quick wave tops of some of our community initiatives our biggest community event is the SlS5K for neurodiversity this is on theko springs site down at Kesslermountain Regional Park um5k and one mile fun run it's in its third year we do we do it every November this the theme of this last year's race was dash like a hero so lots of costumes and really fun event that we've grown with more vendors and
amenities I think we're we're over 250 runners and volunteers at this point so just trying to continue to grow this event it's a really fun festive environment another initiative that we've collaborated with UAMs Northwest on who's been a great partner is the neurodiversity healthalthcare conference this is a conference that we've done in the fall, two years in a row now and it's grown to a full day conference with speakers that are basically focused on identifying hurdles
that nerdivergent patients can face in the healthcare system and best practices and how to optimize care from a patient facing medical professional standpoint things like sensory considerations process flow coordination with the DSP staff and the the parents and guardians beforehand to kind of eliminate paperwork and all kinds of practical tips was really the focus of this this last year's conference Do Hunt was our our keynote speaker last year
just some photos from last year's conference and doctor liza Green was was also on the panel actually last year which was was great brought brought a therapeutic dog which was really interesting. another initiative is we have a par partnership with startup junkie that we started last year that they spearheaded really this is their initiative that we just kind of supported but the neurodiversity in the northwest Arkansas workforce this is a
study that's that's modeled off of a UK study. basicallys get the finger on the pulse of neurodiversity in the workforce in NWA so there were surveys that were disseminated to employers HR neurodivergent employees and neurotypical colleagues just to identify strengths things were doing well and then things that we can improve on as a workforce to create a reference that we can benchmark off of with future studies and can hopefully inform different stakeholders like chambers of commerce
municipal officials and then business leaders and so we just had a launch event two weeks ago with the the mayor of Fayetteville and that that study is is live now we do social events pretty regularly so just different things like Halloween parties bingo bonfires magic show all kinds of stuff so just try to facilitate relationships and the the cool thing is we've seen a lot of friendships that have that have
cropped up in these events so just opportunities for individuals to get out of the house and and meet other other people and so
Speaker 108
1:18:36
with that allll I'll turn over to My name is Bets Mccombs and just to some backstory on SLS and how we got started. this slide is a picture of my daughter Anna and together with my husband, my late husband, we began SLS community
a few years ago because our daughter has autism but she also lives with complex severe complex behavior. which had at the time had a very limiting effect on what was going to happen with her oncece she left high school. she ended up not being able to graduate from Fayetteville High School. she ended up in the neurohavioral unit in Kennedy Kraeger Institute in Baltimore but we
we gathered some parents and individuals that either had a narrow divergent loved one or their lives had been impacted by someone with with neurodiversity but we all had a common denominator of the desire to dream and plan for a better future for our loved ones as they in their adulthood. you know lots of services and plans for children but we call that the service's cliff after they leave high school so
at the time what we saw was a very narrow path with only a few choices and possibilities. the organization's in place were doing a great job but they're carrying a a very heavy load since every neurodivergent person is different just like neurotypical people we're all different. one size or a few sizes did not fit all. and this junction into adulthood is where my husband and I saw a huge discrepancy between the possibilities awaiting our other
three neurotypical children and what choices we're awaiting Anna's adulthood. our own journey with her medically took us to many institutions across the country where we met so many struggling families who had the same concerns We saw firsthand how families were hurting and had become fractured and trying to care for that loved one each story we encountered made a lasting impact. we had already lived through the
limiting isolation of having a different behavioral child at home and how during the darkest days we were severely limited in the activities we could do outside the home as a family unit that had a ripple effect inside our home. after Anna was released from two different inpatient stays in Baltimore. We had to move her to Boston to be taken care of by the May institute in order to maintain stability. there wasn't an appropriate placement for her back here at home
there were limited communitybased options for her level of complexity and it was during that time that we we wanted to talk about how we could break down barriers for a dare we dream amazing future to look forward to for her. Something that included choices possibly many choices across the breadth of a lifespan as an adult I'm talking about different types of housing ways to live, fun events to look forward to.
Public places where she or we were welcomed us ine s s es that would take a chance on hiring someone that needed more help but most definitely had a unique skill to contribute even an atmosphere of of acceptance where she and others like her could be themselves. we see these all as opportunities and ways to develop Godgiven talents and free up the barriers that enable an individual to turn those into skills contributing to society at large.
the rest of us get to choose what we spend our days doing that lights us up inside and we believe that everyone deserves that chance to figure out what their thing is and find ways to develop what often happens however is that the neurotypical person can gain as much if not more when their life brushes up against a neurodivergent person so today Anna's days are filled with activities that her
caregivers help her choose. she is an active participant in her life choices across her entire day and that has enabled her to find her voice like never before. She's quite opinionated but the difference is that now she has practice knowing and advocating for herself instead of just engaging in problem behavior as a go to. she is stable and absolutely loves living away from the family home just like her siblings she always wanted
to be just like them. She volunteers at several local businesses and that too gives her confidence in herself and her abilities. Her behavior challenges are managed by a carefully designed and datadriven process that is ongoing throughout and across her day known as ABA therapy. This has been absolutely critical for maintaining a stable environment changes made along the way for favorable outcomes so that she
can be successful or made, but she is flourishing in spite of her challenges.
Speaker 128
1:24:28
I'm going to share as a board member of SLS but right now I'm gonna share as a a parent of uhjo and given you several different images of him in our family over the years from being very young up until
more recently is an an employee part time employee at Chick fil A. I put those slides up there. I told Ashton I wanted to remind the committee that while SLS like several providers like SLS focus on adults with autism and that's certainly been the focus of today's conversation they all start as children don't they? and we delight in talking about children with autism
and and the the beautiful photos and the the the the moments that we can cheer but they grow up don't they? and the questions that SLS organizations like SLS are asking and invite our our communities to ask with us is what about our children with autism when they cross over into adulthood what's going to happen? Where will they live?
how will they be supported at home and in community how will they learn the skills to be at home and in community where will they work and how will they pursue those employment opportunities how will they make friends and receive support those are the questions that organizations or providers like SLS are asking and invite our communities to ask in regard to these children who've become adults with autism
as I like to think of it. John is my oldest son we adopted him as a newborn and we discovered as he was developing that he had intellectual disabilities and eventually had a diagnosis of autism as well as other intellectual disabilities or diagnoses that have caused him to demonstrate what I think I got from some therapist some
years ago splintered skills it's a fancy way of saying he's really good at some things and not so good at other things and which creates a great opportunity to do good and a great opportunity to get himself in, you know, in harm's way or be taken advantage of and so John is there's so many positives about Johnn and you could see his mom and my wife and his younger son younger brother up there as well. he's now been able
to accumulate a nice little resume with about six years of experience with two Chick fil A stores here in West LittleRock and in Fayetteville and of course he did that with grace and patient support provided by employers who were willing to engage with me and a provider to understand John and what his strengths and weaknesses are he's been able to accumulate
uh33 credit hours in college even to his father's surprise. but of course he's done that with lots of support and patience from a whole community of people both at the community college and the university where he studied as well as in his home setting what SLS focuses on is the question of what if a person like John technically and
developmentally qualifies to be institutionalized but he or she and their family want him or her to live at home and in community. that's really the question that we're asking and that SLS and organizations like it attempt to answer how can we help a person like John who has great capacity but who's disability
related behaviors impulsivity problem solving skills lack of socialization skills not understanding social cues all the impairmentrelate behaviors and limitations that are result of his you know the cognitive impairments that he received before he was born. how can we help John young adults like John live in community
and experience their their family and experience their their talents pursue a goal of being a videographer and photographer like uhjo aspires to become and how do we do that while helping them not be taken advantage of in the community or or you know their their behaviors harm somebody else the these are important questions and so SLS has stepped up to join the fray and one of the a
couple of questions that that I think about as I close on behalf of telling John's story is really how can we as a society in Arkansas incentivize organizations like SL S to continue to pursue innovation that meets the needs of young adults who have complex needs but also great opportunity and potential like Anna and John.
how could we incentivize these organizations to be more innovative to be more sitespecific to to train and equip their employees to work effectively at home and in community with their clients like Anna or John and then second, how can our organizations how can we work with our organizations as a as communities to help take down these barriers that continue to exist where services are not available
that are still needed even adulthood we've you've heard several times that the the the cliff of services that exists when a person transitions from age 20 to age 21. the the the needs don't evaporate for a person with a lifetime impairment. So how can we overcome those barriers and provide more services that they need so that they can be successful in the community we'll all be better and I know John will be better and I
suspect that he's gonna be a blessing to others as we support him and young men and women like him. so thank you for the opportunity to comment on John. Thank you
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:31:49
we're happy to answer any questions Well thank you for that presentation and Mr Cook we've met before and hopefully we'll be working on some legislation soon but you
eloqu eloquently packaged all that into your presentation and this is what this committee is here to explore these perplexing issues that face people with autism so as we me and senator Boyd as we are on this task force together that's that's what we're trying to do try to explore different options and trying to see what we can do to make life better for people with autism here in Arkansas so
thank you for your presentation and I do have a question real quick so you with the Kao institute so when
is that project slated to be completed would say based on the development timeline
Speaker 129
1:32:49
right now we're two or three years out from the first phase of leasable units and and the first phase will be largely multifamily but it's planned to unfold in multiple phases probably driven by the market over the course of
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:33:04
up to a decade so and you mentioned some of the funding so you so you got some you said that you received waivers from the
Speaker 113
1:33:17
the federal government and some help from the city of Fayetteville so the the funding for
Speaker 129
1:33:22
the initial infrastructure was a hud grant that Congressman Womack helped to secure in the2023 federal budget and then there's a city municipal match and so the there's the the Kato Springs
project is is founded in this concept of impact for nerdivergent adults so the funding is tied to that with a clawback provision but that benefited the Katosprings development and then we have this partnership betweenada Springs and SLS. so and I have one more question for you
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:33:53
ma'am so with your work what is one of the one what is one of the things that's hindrance for you to get anything done. it's something that you wished that you had and don't have
Speaker 106
1:34:24
I got it my finger was off huh oh good good to go. so the CS why we're taking care of that what would I wish for? I think I would I would side with with the previous speakers I think trying to get a larger variety of people in the workforce interested in offering volunteer and work opportunities. I think that that that's a hurdle we're working on startup junkie has really helped
us in that domain and but but there's I feel like there's a lot lots of options out there that haven't been tapped yet. so I think in terms of finding meaningful places whether they volunteer or work. I mean a lot of people volunteer before they work but more opportunities, I think that's a huge huge need you have any questions from the task forcece? not so much a
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:35:18
question but really just a testimony my my
Speaker 84
1:35:28
child is also benefiting from SS my family is I'm so glad they were able to come and talk today. they're truly a godsend and I think what I love about the opportunity my child's having Ney SLS mes families where they are and they meet the person where they are and it's just it's providing dignity and hope and I think that's something on'm the most appreciative of so if I can be
an advocate anyway and answer questions fully wanting to do that too. I think
Speaker 106
1:36:05
my other vote is I would like to see replication in other places. I mean I think that I'm I was there with Susie traveling the state. I'm well aware that some areas are better served than others and so I think one of our missions has been if we can develop a system that works we're happy for other people to learn and
Speaker 121
1:36:29
so that's that's not something that's only available in certain areas. I think
Speaker 56
1:36:41
that's a huge need. Tell me because there's such a high need for BCBA's to provide the oversight of the services, how do you deliver or support or write the programs that are delivered with integrity and quality and because it's hard to get the
funding approved for the older individuals. what's your challenge there
Speaker 106
1:37:05
Wow am I glad that you asked that question. I didn't even plant that I think we we have about4 or5 of our staff are registeredha technicians. Now that doesn't help us in Arkansas because you can't bill under that code anyway. I think I had an opportunity to come with Ron to speak to the legislature earlier about adult services and
that piece needs to be addressed. I think anybody who's been in this field very long you you've grown up with these individuals and you know what the need is and so other states are ahead of Arkansas in making that a viable possibility and it's that is a pretty critical need because you can't CS waiver does cover you know services but the the the level of high support needs is not adequately covered unless you're going to cover and I don't think
it should be just autism. I think autism and related disabilities that require a high level of support in adulthood need to have you know more support around that I've lived in five states some of them do it better than others and we all can move forward so yeah that's a huge that's a huge day we we do we do pay the registeredha tax more than we pay our regular staff. I mean slightly more dollar more an
hour which is a lot in the DSP world because they have those principles and they require a different level of supervision which is also kind of a it's that's a load as well but anything I think this is the group that could help under get autism identified past past 21 I'll just add I think one thing that
Speaker 129
1:38:59
we're working on is we we'd like to leverage the
CSSP designation primarily right now we're billing under CS waiver but the CSSP designation with the access to the behavioral health waiver their enhancements that you can get intensive and enhanced and so we're we're we're looking at that and some of the other billing codes that may allow more of a valuebased reimbursement system for people with more complex care needs so if if I might add from a
Speaker 128
1:39:39
the way we've experienced communitybased services through the CES waiver is my son has direct support professionals or staff that are funded through medi Arkansas Medicaid CES waiver their employees of a provider like SLS but our our challenge has been kind of on the ground as those direct support
professionals are are just critical to my son's daily experience, right? if a family member is not with them they're with them with him the challenge is in our current environment I've never experienced where our direct support professionals are actually prepared and trained and supported appropriately based on my son's strengths and and weaknesses
and so if the direct support professional staff are the critical link to working with my son on an hour by hour basis and and they're the organization that employs them is not incentivized to train them and to support them through ongoing communication siteific training what who is John and what are his strengths where are his challenges? what are his triggers? what are his goals
if the provider's not incentivized to train these direct support professionals then it it's a real weak link. the role of ABA therapy has been up until my son became too old to to receive funding through medicaid for ABA The ABA therapist was providing consultation and and guidance to the direct support professionals who were
working with my son that's been taken away in his adulthood and so the the the the challenge for my son is having appropriate trained staff and I don't really necessarily know what the questions are but the way I put it is how do we incentivize providers and support them appropriately as a state to so that direct support professionals that go in the home of my my son are properly prepared, properly trained and properly
supported so they can have a good outcome and so my son can have a good outcome that's a big question that I I wrestle with and that's how I see the the role of an a BCBA
Speaker 108
1:42:30
or ABA therapy playing an important role in adulthood might just add as I said if she wasn't getting services at her age she's30 through
SlSunity. so we started it because we knew from her inpatient stays that ABA therapy was the gold standard for her. Her her behavior is very complex and also very destructive to herself. so now she is stable and that's a that's not just because she has ABA therapy it's a whole wide range but that's the starting point
of the trained staff that are constantly trained and retrained on what how her program changes and it's complex but she she lives a mile from me and I can't tell you how grateful I am for that it's a serious problem
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:43:41
right well thank you again for your presentation and please come back
at any given time if you want to visit us if you want to present any other stuff on our future,
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:44:06
you broke the chair and other business I like to mention before I let Senator Boyd speak Saturdayda is the autism walker in LittleRock at war memorial it starts at7:30
I believe and goes to one that's the annual event and
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
1:44:31
I just wanted to remind everybody about that representative innnett madam cochair. so first of all I've got three things that I just want to mention here. So first of all, April30th in Fortsmith at the bakery district there's going to be an autism works event. it starts at I believe7:30 and goes until5 and
it there is you do have to register and so on and so forth but if anybody has any interest in that it looks to be a good event. the second thing is for Miss Washington could we get some information at our next committee meeting on how to get appointed to this task forcece so that we can just let the public know because we've gotten a couple of emails about it and and it might be easier rather than people wondering if we just included in a meeting because we're people are watching
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
1:45:23
great things in the state of Arkansas we had a great presentation today. I was excited to hear that but we always have to balance that with the Wall Street Journal had articles on investigative issues with the ABA and so I think that we do need to have a discussion about what we're doing right in Arkansas and are there opportunities to to do that because again if we're if we have people who are abusing the system that affects people who are trying to do the right things, right? and we only have
so many dollars to go around so if if we can think through a way to include a a good good discussion on that at a meeting before the end of the year I'd appreciate it thank you We are adjourned thank you
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Remarks from the Chairs in Recognition of Autism Awareness Month
C. Consideration of a Motion to Approve the January 13, 2026, Meeting Minutes [Exhibit C]
D. Presentation on University of Arkansas’s Programs Supporting Students with Autism and Other Disabilities [Exhibit D]
E. Presentation on University of Arkansas – Pulaski Technical College’s 3D Program [Exhibit E]
F. Presentation on the Supporting Lifelong Success (SLS) Community [Exhibit F]
G. Other Business
H. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
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Ashton Mccombs
Unverified
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Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
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