Numbers swirl around in my head. I hate numbers. Ever since 3rd grade when I started to struggle with math I have hated them. I took every other course I could take in high school and college just to get around math.

The ones that speak the loudest to me these days are:

• 1 in 150 children have autism
• 1 in 41 boys have autism***

After a while, you start to become numb to these statistics. They don’t have a personal impact on you, so you listen, feel bad and go forward with your lives. But the problem is, they do have an effect on your life, you just don’t know it.

Here is how:
This year 4,268,027 children will be born in the US.* (give or take a few)
Within those 4,268,027 babies, 1 out of 150 will be diagnosed with autism. For those math geeks, this is 28,453 in 2007.
Just a note: the rate for boys is 4 times that for girls so this is a very conservative number I am using.

After 5 years, these 28K+ children will enter the school system - I am assuming they don’t receive special education services before 5 years old.
Within the school system, 1 in 6 children who receive special education services, or have an IEP (individualized education plan) are placed in what is called a contained classroom - meaning they are not in mainstreamed classrooms for the majority of their educational day.

And, here is where it affects you:
It is estimated that in 2003, it cost a minimum of $30,000 per student annually for the schools to serve special needs kids. Let’s assume that is a number that only applies to the most needy kids, the ones in contained classrooms.
28,453 enter school.
1 in 6 is placed in a contained classroom at a cost of $30,000** annually.
Cost to the schools and the tax payers: $142,264,999 a year. And, these numbers don’t account for inflation between 2003 and 2011, when these kids would turn 5 and enter kindergarten.

These are just minimal numbers. Nearly 75% of all children on the autism spectrum have mental retardation. I hate that term just as much as the next guy, but when I say it - I have a clear understanding of what we are talking about and so does everyone else. This means that many, many more than the 1 in 6 of the kids that are in contained classrooms are receiving school support to the tune of somewhere up to $30,000 or more annually.

If I haven’t made you dizzy yet - I am surprised. What you may or may not know is that without the taxpayers of this country and around the world supporting these kids with early intervention and school programs, these kids my child are going to end up being a MUCH larger tax burden in the future.

As it stands now, I don’t know what my son’s future holds. I don’t know if he will ever be able to live independently or even in a group setting. So there is a cost.

I do know that if the schools/doctors/therapists and my family don’t get a handle on his ability to communicate and think, which directly affects his aggression issues, he will be a 6′3″, more than 200lb adult (when he is full grown) that will be unable to communicate, frustrated and hostile. Can you imagine what his future will be then? What sort of tax supported environment will he be living in then? How much will that cost???

As a country we need to get behind the research dollars for autism. Just to throw in a few more facts and figures, according to Talk About Curing Autism’s website, here is how private funding for the leading childhood illnesses falls out:

Disorder/Disease Rate in Population Annual Funding Dollars Raised:

• Childhood Leukemia 1 in 25,000 children $300 million
• MD 1 in 20,000 children $140 million
• Juvenile Diabetes 1 in 500 $140 million
• Autism 1 in 150 $15 million

Our society is facing a rampant epidemic with autism. The amount of money we will be forced to spend to support these children and their families for the majority of their life times is staggering. But you need to look at the broader picture, funding now for their education, treatment and support is the key to avoiding a life time of tax payer supported futures for our families. So ask yourself, what do these numbers mean to you?

* US Census Bureau,
** Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Winter 2003
*** Cure Autism Now and Talk about Curing Autism

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