START Mission: To work with schools, community partners, and families to support students with
Autism Spectrum Disorder to become active, engaged members of their schools and local communities
and successfully move into adulthood as independent individuals with many choices and opportunities.
The Statewide Autism Resources and Training Project (START) has been funded by the Michigan
Department of Education, Office of Special Education since 2001 to provide training and resources for
educators serving students with ASD that increases local capacity, promotes collaboration across the
state, and creates a comprehensive model for serving students with ASD. The focus of the START
Project is systems level change implemented by school staff and administrators committed to using
evidence-based practices in the areas of educational programming, professional development, parentprofessional collaboration, and cross district/county collaboration.
Focus of the START Project
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Increasing professional knowledge of evidence-based practices and skills to implement practices for
individuals with ASD at the student, classroom, building, and district levels.
Promoting inclusion opportunities and access to general education curriculum.
Providing accommodations and options for differentiated output to increase access to general
education curriculum and settings.
Training school staff in team process and problem solving to improve efficiency and productivity of
teams.
Providing training in positive behavioral interventions and supports to improve behavior supports at
the building and individual student level.
Establishing a set of universal supports to serve as a foundation for effective programming for all
students with ASD that include program guiding principles, family involvement, team process,
paraprofessional training, visual supports, peer supports,
behavior supports, and educational strategies.
Creating peer to peer support programs that promote regular
interactions between students.
Training early childhood special education staff to promote
learning opportunities and engagement
Improving transition outcomes through a systematic process of
discovery, planning, natural supports, and community engagement.
Promoting collaboration and coordination across districts, counties, and regions to increase
opportunities for sharing training and resources and moving toward a common set of principles and
practices for effectively educating students with ASD.
Increasing capacity for school professionals to provide training and coaching locally.
Increasing parent knowledge of evidence-based practices and engagement with the school team.
Linking and coordinating with other state initiatives focused on improving outcomes for students.
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Core Goals and Activities
 Intensive training and technical assistance to school districts using a
team-based approach at the early childhood, K-12, and secondary
transition levels.
 A coaching model supports the implementation of evidence-based
practices at the building and district levels.
 Regional Collaborative Networks (RCN) serves as the infrastructure for
collaboration and coordination across school districts, intermediate
school districts, and community stakeholders, allowing shared training
and resources and systemic planning on a broad scale.
 Access to resources and information delivered through the project
web site, conferences, leadership meetings, and summer institutes.
 Family and Community engagement through training and planning to prepare students to be fully
integrated in their school and local community.
Targeted Goals and Activities
 Early childhood training and technical assistance that is grounded in evidence-based practices and
focused on supporting school personnel to facilitate and expand learning opportunities.
 Peer to peer support training and technical assistance to increase opportunities for students with
ASD to connect with peers in general education settings.
 Transition to adulthood, addressed through Building Your Future (BYF) training and technical
assistance, focuses on a V3 Discovery process (vision, vocational profile, and visual resume) and
expanding peer supports to employment settings.
In summary, the START Project was established to address the increasing number of students with ASD
in the schools and provide educators with the knowledge and skills to meet the needs of this group of
students. Because students with ASD present with unique characteristics and often intense needs, it is
important to prepare school-based teams to work together to assess, intervene, and monitor to best
supports students’ educational needs.
START Project Contact Information
Amy Matthews, Ph.D., Project Director
matthewa@gvsu.edu
Jana Benjamin, JD, Project Manager
Benjamj1@gvsu.edu
Grand Valley State University - Autism Education Center
616-331-6480
www.gvsu.edu/autismcenter
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