Giving Compass' Take:

• The government-funded support structures for autistic students disappears after they graduate from high school. The author suggests that more should be provided for these students since around 50,000 children with autism turn 18 every year.

• How can philanthropists help provide educational and professional services that will help autistic students develop healthy trajectories? 

• Read about a unique alternative treatment option for individuals with autism. 

Through high school, nearly all children on the autism spectrum receive some form of government-funded support. There is speech and language therapy in school, along with occupational and life-skills assistance. But after high school, that all disappears — and those graduates are left to struggle to succeed in or even apply to college, and to find and maintain jobs.

An estimated 1 in 68 children in the United States is on the autism spectrum, and some 50,000 children with autism turn 18 each year. We need to build a support structure that permits these young adults to get a college education, find work after graduation, and live happy, productive, independent, and self-sufficient lives.

It requires concerted attention from universities, foundations, government, and employers to integrate young adults on the autism spectrum into the educational and professional worlds.

We must, as a society, support these young people as they move into adulthood. Universities and foundations already devote research funding to finding ways to improve outcomes; now, they must develop and share best practices for educating students on the autism spectrum.

Employers must be educated to understand autistic workers’ needs and how to leverage their special skills to companies’ best advantage.hey must realize what employees on the autism spectrum can bring to their enterprises — as with all diversity efforts — and come up with creative ways to recruit and retain these talented young people.

With our help, young adults with autism can learn life skills and live successfully on their own.

Read the full article about students with autism by Marvin Krislov at The 74