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 1995
Commonwealth Autism Service was formed by a visionary group of parents of children with autism who recognized significant service gaps in Virginia for people with autism.
Autism had no home within state government responsible for services to individuals with autism.
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These parents approached the General Assembly for a state appropriation to begin the tasks that support our mission.
The Autism Program of Virginia (TAP-VA), as the organization was initially known, was under the umbrella of the ARC of Virginia.
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2001
The first CAS Autism Annual Conference was held in Richmond.
Since then we have hosted 10 annual conferences that highlight the most current topics related to autism, and are targeted to families, educators, and service providers across the state.
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2002
Seeing a need to develop local networks of service providers including agencies, organizations, educators, medical professionals, and families of individuals with autism, the first Autism Action Group© was formed.
Central Virginia Autism Action Group (CVAAG) began meeting June 2002. Today there are a total of 8 Autism Action Groups throughout Virginia, with more being planned.
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In January 2004, the organization changed its name to Commonwealth Autism Service to better reflect its mission to provide leadership in the implementation of a statewide system of services to maximize the potential and quality of life of each Virginian with autism across the lifespan.
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2007
CAS published an autism specific Transition Helpbook, and in 2009 completed work on an adult service handbook. In 2009 CAS received a grant from Autism Speaks to expand the reach of these efforts to families across the Commonwealth.
In 2010, CAS partnered with UMFS' Charterhouse School and GRasp tocreate an 8-week Summer Program for Students with Asperger's to learn independent living skills, social skills, and vocational skills to transition them into post-secondary education.
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2008
The CAS Parternship for Capacity Development in Schools© was established. Our Partnership for Capacity Development in Schools is unlike traditional consultative and didactic training models in that our staff members are deployed and embedded directly into the service provider's environment.
This model addresses physical environment, educational programming, behavioral programming, transition planning, instructional personnel and stafff development, and a team approach and systems support.
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The Learning Institute© was launched in the fall of 2009. It's designed to provide professional development opportunities for BCBAs® and other professionals working in the area of autism. It also provides research centered on our partnerships with public schools on the efficacy of our interventions.
CEUs area vailable for various professions. CAS is a BACB® Approved Continuing Education (ACE) provider.
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Over the years CAS has provided training to law enforcement through our Autism Action Groups©. We have increased our role by working with law enforcement, parents, and Project Lifesaver to get the Dept. of Criminal Justice Services to approve a mandated training curriculum. This module consists of establishing a core group of trainers to train others, and has been expanded to include Fire and Emergency Medical Services, Judges, Attorneys and Magistrates, School Resource Officers, Parents, and Court Security Officers.
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The Developmental Disorders Clinic began in 1998 as a joint venture of Commonwealth Autim Service and the Department of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Clinic moved to the campus of our partner UMFS in a prescriptively redesigned site to become a free-standing program of Commonwealth Autism Service. In 2011 the Clinic expanded to support a variety of pilot projects, i.e. assessment for culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
We are beginning a diagnostic clinic for toddlers to investigate the use of the newly developed ADOS Module T. Additionally, several of our school partnerships have adopted our transdiciplinary approach to assessment within their school teams and receive ongoing training and support. |
