Welcome to the Newsroom, created to foster COSAC's ongoing rapport with the media. If you are a reporter or producer seeking accurate information for a story about autism, as well as New Jersey families affected by autism, we can help. COSAC successfully works with national, regional, state and local reporters and producers to address the issues affecting New Jersey's autism community.
This section also is for families affected by autism who are interested in working with the media to tell their stories, and the professionals who work with children and adults with autism. To become a COSAC media specialist, click here. Together as well as COSAC's initiatives and achievements.
Thank you in advance for your interest in autism, COSAC and the issues facing New Jersey's autism community.
Contacts
Hope Arvanitis, Director, Communications and Marketing Dept.
COSAC wants to highlight the families it serves and is now collecting photos to use in the agency's publications, awareness materials, website and other projects.
Now collecting for the 2007 Annual Report
Interested parties can send high quality, digital photos to jessica.alloway@njcosac.org, or mail photos to COSAC, Attn: Jessica Alloway, 1450 Parkside Avenue, Suite 22, Ewing, NJ 08638. Click here to download a photo release form and mail to 1450 Parkside Ave., Suite 22, Ewing, NJ 08638 or fax to 609-883-5509.
Headlines
Library Customer Services Staff Autism Training Video Now Available
The Scotch Plains Public Library and the Fanwood Memorial Library, together with our partners, produced a customer service training video primarily for library staff to help them serve individuals with autism and their families more effectively. The video focuses on what you need to know about autism and will empower you with specific techniques to offer more inclusive service to this growing and underserved population. Click here to view the training video.
Assembly Committee Clears Bill To Create an Advocate for Autistic New Jerseyans
Assembly Committee Clears Bill To Create an Adovate for Autistic New Jerseyans
Part of Second Wave of Autism Support Measures
Would Establish the Office of the Advocate for Persons with Autism
(TRENTON) – The Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee today released legislation Assembly members Joan Voss, Vincent Prieto and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. sponsored to establish an Office of the Advocate for Persons with Autism (OAPA).
The measure is part of the second wave of landmark autism support measures introduced in February that complement the historic seven-bill autism awareness package Assembly Speaker Roberts championed into law last session.
“We must continue to clear the way to enable families to better face autism by pairing them with the educational, health, and support services that they desperately need,” said Roberts (D-Camden). “Our efforts can drastically improve the quality of life for families living with autism while promoting better understanding and support for residents facing this complex disorder.”
“We must give a voice to the thousands of families of autistic New Jerseyans who are not always aware of the services available to them,” said Voss (D-Essex), whose son has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. “This advocate will help to better protect the rights of the growing autistic community and ensure that families and loved ones do not face this baffling disorder alone.”
The measure (A-2256) would establish an advocate for autistic New Jerseyans within the state Division of Advocacy for the Developmentally Disabled in the Department of the Public Advocate.
“By establishing an advocate dedicated to the concerns of the autistic community, New Jersey would be making the well-being of its autistic residents a top priority,” said Prieto (D-Hudson). “Our efforts could help families struggling to care for a loved one with autism find services to vastly improve the quality of their lives. We must continue to proactively reach out and help New Jersey families struggling to tackle this complex disorder.”
Among its responsibilities, the OAPA office would:
Provide leadership within the autism community in New Jersey;
Work with the Division of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services to promote policies that support the integration of autistic residents into the community;
Assist families that have a loved one with autism streamline needed services provided by multiple agencies of government;
Promote greater awareness and education among the general public concerning the characteristics and needs of individuals with autism;
Assist in the development of support networks for families with a loved one with autism through public and private entities; and
Work with the business community to facilitate the accommodation of individuals with autism and their families in public places.
The committee released the measure by a vote of 10 to 0. It now heads to the Assembly Speaker who decides when and if to post it for a floor vote.
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COSAC Supports The Helping Hands Autism Act of 2008, New Autism Legislation Announced Today by U.S. Senator Robert Menendez
Ewing, NJ: Members of the New Jersey Center for Outreach and Services for the Autism Community (COSAC) attended a press conference today and applauded U.S. Senator Robert Menendez's (D-NJ) announcement of a new plan to support families affected by autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The Helping Hands Autism Act of 2008 aims to increase Housing, Awareness and Navigation Demonstration Services (HANDS) for individuals with ASDs. It is expected to combine guidance for families seeking ASD services and care, awareness training for first responders and a task force on housing for adults with autism. New Jersey, where 1 in 94 children is diagnosed with an ASD, has the highest rate of autism in the nation. Today's event was held at the Theodore Roosevelt No. 5 Elementary School in Weehawken, NJ,
and follows several pieces of autism legislation introduced in the past year.
COSAC Executive Director Linda Meyer and Director of Public Policy and Systems Advocacy Leslie Long attended today's event along with families affected by ASDs, and representatives of Autism Speaks, a national organization. Several people addressed the positive impact this legislation can have on more than 87,000 state residents affected by an ASD.
COSAC thanked Senator Menendez for listening to the needs of New Jersey's autism community and acknowledging COSAC as a valuable resource for families and professionals who support them. "The Helping Hands for Autism Act marks a great step toward an improved quality of life for individuals affected by autism spectrum disorders," said Linda Meyer. "The autism community represents both a medical and financial challenge for our communities. As the state's budget tightens, states need to look for federal partners to help solve difficult problems. Senator Menendez, thank you for working to create a long overdue federal and state partnership to benefit the autism community," Meyer concluded.
"Nothing is more important to families than to know that their government understands the issues they are facing and to present solutions to aid them," said Leslie Long, whose department educates families, legislators, employers and the community on the lifelong needs of individuals affected by ASDs. "We believe that Senator Menendez has empowered the autism community through this much needed and very important legislation."
Human Services Sued on Behalf of 8,000 Disabled People
by Susan K. Livio/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday April 16, 2008, 12:59 PM
A legal advocacy group and a prominent law firm filed a lawsuit against the Department of Human Services on behalf of 8,000 developmentally disabled people, saying their rights have been violated because they have been waiting - many for years - to move into government-sponsored community housing.
The federal lawsuit targets the state for failing to meet its legal responsibility to provide housing for people who want or need to live outside of their family homes. The Department has established a waiting list, but few ever leave it, unless a parent or other caretaker becomes ill or dies, the lawsuit said.
"These individuals have been for years diverted to a so-called 'waitlist' for such services, with no guarantee, and little hope, of accessing the services they need," said R. Scott Thompson of Lowenstein Sandler, which is representing the federally funded legal rights group New Jersey Protection and Advocacy Inc. for free.
"The failure of the state to provide community services for thousands of individuals has had a devastating effect,'' said Emmett Dwyer, NJP&A's Director of Litigation. "Thousands of people are stuck at home going nowhere, and many of them have been unnecessarily placed in institutions when their elder parents could no longer care for them.''
A state spokeswoman for the department could not immediately be reached for comment.
This would be the fourth lawsuit filed against the state Department of Human Services by advocacy groups trying to compel the state to expand or improve its services to vulnerable people.
New Jersey Protection and Advocacy has two lawsuits pending against the department - one on behalf of people with mental illness, the other for developmentally disabled people - who have the will and capability to live outside state institutions but remain there because of a lack of housing options and services. Children's Rights, a national advocacy group based in New York, sued the department in 1999 on behalf of foster children as a means to force the state to invest more money and improve the child welfare system. That lawsuit was settled in 2003 and court-monitored overhaul of children's services is ongoing.
COSAC Participates in Autism Legislation Hearing
Yesterday, members of COSAC staff testified during the Assembly Committee on Health and Senior Services, at which the second round of autism legislation was proposed and approved.
Click below to see COSAC Director of Clinical Services Suzanne Buchanan testify in support of a bill to require insurance coverage for treatment including Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).
To view a news story that aired on New Jersey Network News (PBS), visit
Autism legislation report is approximately 10 minutes into the newscast.
Autism Aid is Back on the Table
As posted on February 21, 2008 by the Record of Bergen County:
New Jerseyans with autism would gain a government advocate, insurance coverage for promising treatments and help with living arrangements under a second wave of legislation detailed Wednesday. In all, Assembly leaders say, they will propose six bills to support adults and children diagnosed with the neurological disorder. A similar effort in 2007 resulted in an eight-bill package -- signed by Governor Corzine -- that added millions of dollars for research, among other initiatives. "This is Round 2, building on what we did last year," Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, D-Camden, a sponsor of both bill packages, told The Record. "We really have to have a multidimensional approach to how we tackle it." The bills will be considered Monday during a meeting of the Assembly Health Committee
in Trenton.
Roberts did not have an estimate of what the latest legislation could cost. But he noted that some proposals -- particularly one to encourage home placement over institutional care -- would involve shifting expenditures among existing programs. And health plans, not taxpayers, would be required to reimburse the cost of expensive behavioral and other therapies that some insurers now decline to cover. "I think [Roberts] introduced some really good pieces of legislation," said Leslie Long, director of public policy for the New Jersey chapter of the Center for Outreach and Services for the Autism Community. "It sends a message to families that the state is listening ... and willing to take a step forward. We need to take a leap, though." New Jersey has the country's highest rate of
autism, with one in 94 children affected, according to a study released last year by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national rate is one in 150 children. Autism can include impaired communication skills, social awkwardness and repetitive behavior. It has no known cause or cure.
The Legislature and Corzine have identified autism as a prime concern. In September, the governor approved the state's most comprehensive autism-related legislation ever, including establishing a council for adults, mandating childhood screening and dedicating millions of dollars to research. Some of the legislation described Wednesday is based on existing services. The Office of the Advocate for Persons with Autism, for instance, would be created within the Department of the Public Advocate, whose divisions work on issues important to consumers, voters, senior citizens, those with mental illness and others. One bill would encourage people with autism to find their own living arrangements, with supervision. The idea is to decrease the number waiting for placement in state-run residences, and it
resembles the state's "aging in place" initiatives dating to the mid-1990s. The bill to require insurance coverage for therapies is similar to the mental-health parity requirement, enacted in 1999. The three other pieces of legislation would create identification cards, establish a Web site as a clearinghouse for all autism-related services available in New Jersey and set up a student peer program in Grades 7-12, for typical students to interact with those who have autism. Use of the ID cards would be voluntary. Some people with the diagnosis are sensitive to light and sound and they may not comply with a police officer's order to freeze or a firefighter's request to evacuate. In such a situation, an ID card could convey that the bearer may act atypically, but is not a danger. Long, of the autism center, said the Web site and other forms of outreach are sorely needed. Families and people with autism "need to be able to pick up the phone and find out where they get
help," Long said.
