| Abstract: In February, 1999 plans to provide a five year pilot CABAS® school program for 12 young children with autism in Cork, Ireland were agreed in principle with the Irish Department of Education and Science. It had taken almost a year for a dedicated group of parents in Cork to create enough political pressure for the project to be evaluated and realized. Over the next five and a half years the provision of services grew to include four schools with an enrollment of 96 children. The CABAS® programs included logical and empirically tested curricula based on international standards across Ireland, England and the United States, university based training modules for staff, teachers, teacher mentors and parents and complete accountability based on a systems summary of data. From its inception the CABA® initiative was focused on: effective teaching, mentoring and measured quality through the data based practices, assuring continuity through the establishment of Irish university graduate programs in ABA, and the integration of CABAS® into general education under the CABAS® umbrella. |