Governor DeSantis announces major funding for autism support
WTVX | By Amber Raub | April 30, 2024
JUPITER, Fla. (CBS12) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held up a check for $1 million with state leaders and members of the Els Center of Excellence, which provides resources to people with autism and developmental disabilities on Monday.
The funding is part of more than $2.2 billion going to the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The funding marks $2 million the Els Center of Excellence has received from the state.
At a news conference in Jupiter, Gov. DeSantis announced the major funding will go toward a recreational complex, which will provide a sensory-friendly environment that meets the needs of children with autism.
The new facility will have a gymnasium and aquatic center. It will provide a specialized swim and water safety program, aqua therapy sessions, indoor sports, and fitness activities. As well as providing a specialized athletic curriculum that gives parents, teachers, and coaches the best tools to assist children and students with unique abilities.
The new facility will have a gymnasium and aquatic center. It will provide a specialized swim and water safety program, aqua therapy sessions, indoor sports, and fitness activities. As well as providing a specialized athletic curriculum that gives parents, teachers, and coaches the best tools to assist children and students with unique abilities.
It will also have a specialized autism-friendly hurricane shelter facility.
The Executive Director of the ELS for Autism Foundation, Marlene Sotelo says this center is essential.
“Exercise is now an evidence-based intervention for people with autism, to be able to get that early on, and throughout the lifespan changes the trajectory of the future of that individual,” said Sotelo.
Dr. Erin Brooker Lozott says they hope it will bring down the number of autistic children who drown.
“Drowning being, you know, one of the number one causes of death in autism,” said Brooker Lozott. “Hopefully, it will save lives and really get swimming to be one of the first sports for people with autism.”
The center works with individuals in different ways, whether it’s through therapy services, community support, or even a charter school education.
Doctors say keeping a routine for people with autism is essential, and this recreation complex will help with that.
“Structure and scheduling is what keeps us emotionally regulated, which keeps us actively engaged and available to learn,” said Brooker Lozott.
The foundation says the ability to further education in a fostering environment, along with the resources and services they provide for people with autism is a model for the rest of the world.
The foundation says it plans to open the recreation complex in January 2027.
In the same news conference, the governor also said that participation in the school voucher program has grown in record numbers.
According to the governor, 400,000 students are enrolled in the program.
Over 98,000 of those students are receiving unique abilities funding. In 2021, only 25,000 students received the unique ability funding.
The funds provided through the program help families of students with disabilities as young as 3 years old gain access to additional education options.
The idea is to give parents the ability to find the best environment to serve their child’s needs.
“Some of these schools are very, very good because they can take the disabilities they can take whatever challenges are there and focus an entire school around that,” said Gov. DeSantis. “ Not every school can meet every need. That’s just not the way it works. So they’ve been able to do- so parents are able to get a scholarship to go there. It’s been a huge, huge difference all across the state.”
The funds for the unique abilities scholarship can be used to pay for things like laptops, speech therapy, physical therapy, and even summer camps. It can also help pay for private, virtual, or homeschool tuition.
