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Frequently Asked Questions
- Who pays Vista's tuition?
Most of the students are enrolled at The Vista School® at the joint request of parents and their school districts. In such cases, the school district pays the child's tuition. Some children, whose families meet the eligibility criteria, receive full or partial scholarship awards The Vista School K-12 Scholarship Program or The Vista School Pre-Kindergarten Scholarship Program. For more information on these scholarship programs, please download scholarship program guidelines and application at the above links or call Jim Bouder at (717) 835-0310.
- How much is Vista's tuition?
The Vista School's® regular school year tuition is currently $35,000 annually, which is very competitive with both public school Autistic Support programs and other private school programs in Central Pennsylvania.
- If there are currently no openings at The Vista School®, is there anything else Vista can do to assist a school district in meeting the needs of a student or students with autism?
Vista Outreach Services provides a wide range of itinerant consultative and direct service support for children currently served in public school programs. Vista's Outreach Services are competitively priced and are reimbursable to school districts participating in the School Based Access Program (SBAP). Services provided by Vista's Outreach staff include training and support, behavior planning and intervention, data collection and analysis, and social skills intervention.
- What about the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) requires that all children with disabilities be educated, "to the maximum extent appropriate," with children who are not disabled. Some incorrectly interpret this mandate as requiring all children with disabilities to be educated in a regular education classroom with supplemental supports and services. This point of view, however, wrongly separates the inseparable concepts of "Least Restrictive Environment" and "appropriate to the needs of the child" as set forth in IDEA. More to the point, this view can result in missed opportunities that could be detrimental to some children in the future should placement decisions be made without giving due consideration to the needs of the child.
"Appropriate" is defined as an education reasonably calculated to afford a child with meaningful educational progress. Children with autism who have high severity symptoms often require a level of specialization and intensity of service that cannot be effectively delivered in regular education settings. With such approaches as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), children with autism may acquire the skills they need to not only occupy a classroom with children who are not disabled, but also to succeed academically and, ultimately, as independent, gainfully employed, and happy adults.
For children enrolled at Vista, The Vista School® is the Least Restrictive Environment appropriate to their individual needs. Vista's goal, however, is to become obsolete in the lives of each student, and to enable children to transition to regular education settings in their home school districts when they no longer require Vista's level of support. For many children with autism, we believe that intensive, behavior analytic interventions are the best means by which such children can meaningfully participate in regular school settings in the future.
- Will ABA turn my child into a robot?
A popular criticism of Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA, is that it will result in a child responding to others "robotically." A short visit to The Vista School® will quickly dispel any such myth. All human beings tend to respond positively to the expectation of rewards. ABA programs systematize this general principle and, by carefully observing how children with autism respond to rewards and changes to their environment, determine the manner and frequency of reward that maximizes the opportunities for the child to practice important skills. At Vista, these systems are applied in the classroom, at play, in the community, and in the home to improve the overall outcome of the child's educational and therapeutic experience.