I request that special education policies:

1) Continue to include parents or guardians in the entire eligibility cycle from identificaiton to termination.  A child is best served by a collaborative team of parents, educators, and other professionals all working together with mutual trust towards the goal of providing the best possible services for the child. Parents will be more supportive of mutually arrived at decisions, and children will be  best served through a unifed team that includes all the people that have his or her best interest at heart.

2) Reflect accurately the full scope of pervasive developmental disorders and recognize that a child may be very significally impaired without displaying criteria associated with "classic autism."  Aspergers Syndrome, Rhetts Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified are distinct disabilities which share some but not all characteristics of autism. It is critical that the language of special education policies does not unintentially exclude children with very significant pervasive developmental disorders who are in need of services but do not exhibit the same array of symptoms.