ALTERNATIVE PATHS TRAINING SCHOOL INC

Autism school changing lives, location

By Jason Jacks

Fed up struggling with Fairfax County school officials over how her severely autistic 9-year-old son, Richard, should be taught, Lisa Constantini was ready to pack up and move out of Virginia.

Richard can be a lot to handle for teachers inexperienced in working with autistic students, said the Fairfax resident. His condition limits his speech. He can also become violent toward himself and others.

"Kids who have no verbal skills, they are either meek and quiet or they beat the hell out of you," Constantini said. "Too bad Richard chooses the latter."

Becoming frustrated with his outbursts and worried for their teachers, students and Richard's safety, school officials at Bonnie Brae Elementary School, where Richard attended, asked Constantini to place her son in a school that specializes in educating children with autism—a neurological disorder that impacts a person's social interaction and communication skills and occurs in about six of every 1,000 births.

Two months ago, Constantini enrolled Richard in Alternative Paths Training School. The little-known Springfield contract school (a private school that works closely with public school districts) turned out to be Constantini's saving grace, she said.

"As a parent who never wanted a child in a contract school, I now never want him out," she said about Alternative Paths.

The school was founded in 2002 by Fairfax residents and behavioral counselors Alan El Tagi and Susan Fisher-Gross to give parents of children with developmental disorders an alternative to public schools, which are not usually outfitted to teach students like Richard.

"All behaviors are learned," said Fisher-Gross, 47, about behavior like Richard's. "They can be reshaped."

The school's teachers work with individuals with varying degrees of autism from all over Northern Virginia to become "responsible members of the community" by learning practical social and job skills most people take for granted.

Training at the school is not limited to the classroom. According to co-founder El Tagi, 40, late-night and weekend phone calls and visits to off-site locations to calm overtested parents of autistic students are not uncommon.

"We really spend a lot of time in the homes," he said.

Students at Alternative Paths are referred to the school by their individual school districts, who also pay the students' tuition.

The process has been a success.

After only two years, the school, which can now accommodate only eight students, has outgrown its tight space on Boston Boulevard, near the Army's Engineer Proving Ground, and is now expanding and moving.

"We didn't realize we would grow so quickly," Fisher-Gross said.

At the new facility, located just off Mount Vernon Memorial Highway in the Mount Vernon area, school officials will be able to cut into their waiting list soon by being able to work with up to 32 students at a time.

With the additional size, Fisher-Gross now wants to get the word out about the school before the new facility opens in about two weeks.

"We don't want to be the best-kept secret anymore," she said.

Besides attracting students, the nonprofit school is also hoping to entice donors to help pay for the final renovations and upkeep of the Mount Vernon facility.

"We have the money to run the new school, but not enough for wheelchair ramps and other things," said Pamela Gross, the school's director of public relations and Fisher-Gross' 23-year-old daughter.

Constantini plans to make the longer trip to the Mount Vernon site. Since enrolling at Alternative Paths two months ago, Richard's behavior has been mellowing, she said.

"It [Alternative Paths] saved my kid's life," she said. "Literally, after his first two weeks, his behavior improved."

July 22, 2004 Fairfaxtimes.com

http://ww2.fairfaxtimes.com/cms/archivestory.php?id=184276

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