Return to story

A special place for special needs

November 9, 2008 12:36 am

On a snowy afternoon, a Spotsylvania County school bus pulled off Interstate 95 and aides called for help to restrain a biting, kicking and punching student.

Michael Payne, a 15-year-old with autism, had slipped out of his harness and let out a desperate cry. Bus attendants struggled to control Michael while they waited for his father to arrive.

"By the time I got to the bus, Michael was surrounded by police and fire personnel," recalled his dad, Mark Payne. "We call him Houdini because he can get out of just about any restraint. He has no concept of danger."

The snowfall had overly excited Michael, but he's nonverbal and can't explain. Such outbursts happened too often on the two-hour, twice-daily bus ride to Matthew's Center in Manassas, a nonprofit, private special-education school.

Mark Payne had been called to the yellow school bus many times before because of Michael's behavior. The incident in March 2007 led to a meeting with Spotsylvania school officials to discuss other options for Michael, his father said.

But from Michael's worst meltdown on the bus came the seeds of the idea to bring a Matthew's Center school to the Fredericksburg area.

Ni River Community Church plans to build a campus in Spotsylvania, partnering with nonprofit groups, the county and social services agencies to house a variety of community support services, said Ken Wood, executive administrator of the church. The church has agreed to donate space there for a second site of Matthew's Center.

Ni River Church, which meets on Sundays at Courtland High School, already has a 28-acre site on Smith Station Road for its campus. Still, it could take a year or more to come to fruition as church officials seek county permits and money to build.

The addition of a Matthew's Center here would be life-changing for some local families whose children have autism.

Michael continued at the Manassas center until September, when he was placed in a residential school in New Kent County. Because Michael's strength makes it difficult to control him when he's agitated, Mark Payne, a single father of three, said he had no choice but to move his son.

AUTISM INCREASING

Four local students now attend Matthew's Center, the special school founded in 2000 by Mark and Laurie Heilman and named for their son Matthew, who has autism.

Schools like Matthew's Center are in demand. The prevalence of autism has risen remarkably.

"The education system is not ready for the number of kids with autism," said Marguerite Colston of the Autism Society of America.

Her group, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, report that one in every 150 American children, and almost one in every 94 boys, has some form of autism.

There are about 3,000 students with disabilities in Spotsylvania County schools, said Jane Rice, director of special services for the system. She said 217 of them have been diagnosed with autism.

Almost all of the Spotsylvania children with autism are served in the community, though a few go to day schools or residential centers outside the county.

Gateway Academy, a new Spotsylvania day school for autism, serves three students who require a special setting. Most students with autism attend special-education programs at county schools.

"We would love to eventually be able to serve all students with autism within the public school system," said Rhonda LaPorte, supervisor for compliance for Spotsylvania, who just retired from the school system. "I don't know if that's realistic, and we may still be placing students in private placement. But as the programs grow, they'll hopefully be closer to home."

For every student with a disability, an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, is developed. Parents, school officials and medical assessors meet to map out a need-based education plan for each student.

Michael's IEP team determined that Matthew's Center was the best place for him to learn. Michael had regressed from years of inadequate schooling in the county system, Mark Payne said.

When he started at Matthew's Center in 2002, Michael could not control his actions, and he stopped going to the bathroom on his own. He initially had made strides in those areas while attending a special treatment center in New Jersey for children with severe behavioral problems.

Matthew's Center offers specialized services for children with autism and other severe disorders.

Teachers at Matthew's Center introduced Michael to an image-based training system called PECS (the Picture Exchange Communication System). There are symbols for bathroom, food, toys and more. It's the only way Michael has been able to communicate.

COMMUTING TOUGH

Of the four Fredericksburg-area children at Mat-thew's Center, three are bused by Spotsylvania County. A Stafford County student is driven by his mother.

Other children there commute from as far away as Maryland and other parts of Virginia.

The school costs $209 to $319 per day for 12-month day-school sessions. In almost all cases, the school district where the student lives covers tuition, once Matthew's Center is determined to be the best option for a child, said Laurie Heilman, the center's director.

"Our goal is to keep [students with autism] in their community," she said. Working with Ni River Community Church on a second Matthew's Center will help meet that goal and support the public schools.

Heilman attended Michael's IEP meeting following the March 2007 bus incident. And after her center helped train the bus staff, emergency stops were reduced from three times each week to a few times during the year, Payne said

At that meeting, Heilman met the Rev. Don Taylor, pastor of Ni River Community Church, which the Payne family had begun attending a month before. Payne said they hadn't been to church in eight years because Michael "made too much noise."

Mark Payne was reluctant at first to accept Taylor's offer to join in the IEP meeting.

"Something told me that he needed to be there," Payne said. And it opened the door to bringing Matthew's Center here.

"I believe it's God's plan to have this happen. You just can't write it off as coincidence," Payne said.

Though a Spotsylvania Matthew's Center is some time off, Payne is looking forward to an improved quality of life for students with autism and their families. "In the surrounding counties, I know there's a need for it," said Payne, a Matthew's Center board member.

As for Michael, Payne said: "He's making great progress" in New Kent. "They can provide the structure that I can't provide at home.

Now 17, Michael will receive county-provided schooling until age 22 and may be eligible for care afterward. The goal for him and others still at Matthew's Center is to one day get vocational training at the Spotsylvania branch.

"I feel excitement, relief and astonishment that it's happening and in the way that it's happened," Payne said. "I believe in Matthew's Center. They've done wonders with him."

Shayna Jacobs: 540/374-5416