Autism rates vary widely among California school districts

A pathbreaking series of articles  by Alan Zarembo in the Los Angeles Times documents the enormous challenges facing California school districts in dealing with the soaring rates of autism, as well as the wide, and unexplained, disparities in the incidence of autism among districts.

As Zarembo writes:

In California public schools, the number of students receiving autism services, including speech, behaviorial and other therapies, has grown fivefold since 2000, driving up special education costs even as school budgets are being slashed.

Most experts see wider diagnosis — and increased spending — as progress. Children who in the past would have been overlooked, misunderstood or deemed hopeless cases are receiving help. But some of the same experts say that in the sweeping effort to find autism, some children are being mislabeled.

Diagnosis rates — and therefore spending on treatment — vary dramatically from place to place.