ABSTRACT
The “normalization” movement has been integral in protecting civil rights, deinstitutionalizing and humanizing services for people with developmental handicaps (1). Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Public Law 94-142 (Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975) have had a tremendous impact on providing quality services to individuals with developmental disabilities. A key problem of service delivery, however, is that the needs of children with mental retardation and children with autism are not well differentiated (2) by the laws put in place. Additionally, issues pertaining to children with autism, including medication, social-skills training, placement, and programming, are not well addressed by this legislation (3), which is important because autism and mental retardation are different in terms of developmental pattern and outcome (4-6). In practice, the effort toward integration has sometimes led to a lack of diversity of services, inappropriate practices, and a lack of responsiveness to individuals’ needs (7). More recently, Public Law 106-310 (the Children’s Health Act of 2000) has outlined plans to increase research and education on autism. The passing of this law has been a substantial milestone in an effort to discover the etiology of and effective treatments for autism.
