Charters for Autistic Children

The panel on autism has released its report. I don’t know enough about current autism support services to say whether their recommendations about consolidation and restructuring are good, but I wholeheartedly agree with this proposal:

Amending the charter school law to allow charter schools for children with autism to be built outside of St. Louis and Kansas City.

That would be a win for everyone. The autistic children would benefit, and the usual objection to charter schools made by public school districts — that they draw children and resources away from traditional public schools — wouldn’t apply. Right now, many districts struggle to educate autistic children, who in some cases need a lot of individual attention from specialists.