After long hours of drafting, writing and editing, the TISD special populations program received a grant that will help to expand their program and help them implement new ideas for students with autism. 

“Becky Graham, the Program Director for the autism grant, and Kacey Jenkins, a Special Education Coordinator for the district, worked collaboratively on the writing,” ASPIRe program coordinator Ashleigh Bridges said. “They also reached out to partnering school districts to see if they would like to be part of a Shared-Service-Arrangement with Texarkana ISD to receive services for students with autism.”

Texarkana ISD had a grant previously from 2018-2020 that helped to create the ASPIRe Program that included students ages three through eight, specifically with autism. 

“We have not had the grant since then, so the ASPIRe program was not able to continue since the end of 2020,” Bridges said. “With this new grant, we are able to restart the program and expand on what was started in the first grant.” 

Now, the renewal of this grant expands the ASPIRe program to service students from ages 3-21 who have autism, and it will be for a total of 19 school districts in this area with five main ISDs in the Shared-Service-Agreement. 

“With this large grant, funds will go to a variety of things,” Bridges said. “[It will go to] staff to support students with autism, training for staff and parents in Evidence-Based Practices for students who have an Autism Spectrum Disorder, creating sensory rooms or spaces in teacher’s classrooms or on their campus, providing the opportunity for five teachers (one from each partnering district) to go through Texas Tech’s Applied Behavior Analysis Master’s Program to help them become Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and implementing a five-week summer camp for students with autism and more.” 

Although the process was time consuming for coordinator, many are looking forward to seeing the impact the grant will have on both children and adults. 

“We are very excited about this grant and cannot wait to see it all come together over these next two years,” Bridges said.