Autism Council

NEXT MEETING

November 17, 2008
Madison, WI
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

1 W. Wilson Street., Room B139

Overview of the Autism Council

In a February, 2005 letter (PDF, 190 KB) to then-Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS) Secretary Helene Nelson, Governor Jim Doyle announced that he would appoint a Council on Autism to advise the Department on strategies for implementing statewide supports and services for children with autism and directing the Department to assist the Council with administrative and support services. 

Governor Doyle specified that he wanted the Council to address some of the important issues identified by his earlier Task Force on Autism:

• Provider staff training issues
• Provider and parent strategies to recruit and retain line staff.
• Provider outreach efforts to recruit parents to work as line staff.
• Alternative approaches to the current age restriction policy in the intensive phase

Goals of the Council.  At the Council's first meeting on August 17, 2005, the members generated a list of their priorities in terms of issues they hoped to address. The Council will work with DHS on refining these goals and determining their priorities.

• Exceptions Policies
• Children's Functional Screen/Level of Care
• Independent Evaluation & Assessment (enough diagnosticians, quality training for teams)
•  Travel Guidelines
• Services across Lifespan
• Standard County Services
• Education - DPI Partnership
• Staffing Issues
• Alternative Forms of Treatment & Service Delivery Models (rural issues)
• 3-Year End of Intensive In-Home Autism Treatment
• Access to Information for parents; e.g., guidance on how the waiver process works.

Membership of the Council. Council members are appointed by the Governor, who specified that a majority of the 13 council members must be parents of children with autism. The remaining members of the Council may include the following individuals: providers of services to children with autism; local government officials; persons with knowledge of the issues relating to autism; and public members. Current members are listed here, or you may print this list (PDF, 18 KB).

Meetings.  Council meetings will be quarterly, with the first meeting of the year in February (the Council made an exception for 2006 when they felt an additional organizational meeting was needed in January prior to initiating the quarterly schedule). Meetings will generally be held on the third Monday of the month. The exact date will be published here when it is known. Meeting agendas and approved final minutes of past meetings will be published as they are available. The Council approves final minutes for one meeting as a matter of business at the next meeting. After the minutes have been approved by the Council, they are published to this website.

All Council meetings are open to the public. The first half hour of each agenda is available for public comment. Anyone wishing to comment must appear in person and register at least 15 minutes prior to the meeting. (The Council will attempt to accommodate speakers who are not able to attend until later in the day.) Each speaker will have up to 3 minutes for their comments, regardless of whether they are speaking as an Individual or representing a Group. Speakers are asked to submit their comments in writing for the record, If possible, 

2008 Meeting Information
2007 Meeting Information
2006 Meeting Information
2005 Meeting Information

Council Bylaws. (PDF, 27 KB) The Council approved their Bylaws on January 9, 2006.

Contact.  If you have questions about this Council, please contact Sandy Blakeney at 608-261-7651 or by e-mail at sandra.blakeney@wisconsin.gov.

Last Revised: August 22, 2008