Parents and schools struggle to find a place for more and more autistic kids.

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The sudden rise in autism diagnoses is controversial in some circles. There are scientists who say autism isn’t actually rising in epidemic proportions, but that doctors are simply better at detecting its symptoms and diagnosing it. “The phenomenon of autism has existed most likely since the origins of human society,” wrote Morton Ann Gernsbacher, a research professor at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, in a report published last year in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. “No sound scientific evidence indicates that the increasing number of diagnosed cases of autism arises from anything other than purposely broadened diagnostic criteria, coupled with deliberately greater public awareness and intentionally improved case finding.”

But a report by the California Department of Developmental Services and the MIND Institute, a research hub for neuro-developmental illnesses, dismissed that assertion in a landmark 2002 report. “Speculation about the increase in autism in California has led some to try to explain it away as a statistical issue or with other factors that artificially inflated the numbers,” said UC Davis pediatric epidemiologist Robert S. Byrd, who is the principal investigator on the study. “Instead, we found that autism is on the rise in the state and we still do not know why. The results of this study are, without a doubt, sobering.”

That report showed that disorders grouped under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are rising at epidemic rates in state schools, while other disorders like mental retardation, deafness, blindness and emotional disturbances remain at static levels. All ASD disorders—which include autism, Asperger syndrome and pervasive development disorders—limit a child’s ability to function.

In 1999, California schools had 9,380 students diagnosed with ASD in special education classes. By 2005, that figure had risen three-fold to 29,370.

In Monterey County, the rise has been equally dramatic. In 2001, Monterey County had only 51 ASD-diagnosed students under 21 years of age. By the 2005-06 school year that total had swelled to 200. That’s a rate of about one in every 350 students in the county.

There are many baffling statistics with autism. The vast majority of ASD cases in the state and county are boys, while a disproportionately high number of them are of Asian descent. In Monterey County, Asians represent less than 3 percent of the student population, yet they are 10 percent of ASD students.

Gail Yulich, speech pathologist and teaching principal for the Monterey County Office of Education’s ASD programs, witnessed the spike in the early 1990s.

“Before 1990, we’d see about one autistic child every three years,” says Yulich, who’s been with MCOE since 1975. “But after 1990, we found that we had to keep adding one or two classes every year to accommodate the new ASD cases.”

The cost to educate ASD-diagnosed children in special education programs is disproportional to their numbers. While ordinary pupils cost schools about $6,000 a year, an ASD-diagnosed student costs about three times that, according to a 2005 report from the Government Accountability Office.

Today, half of all the county’s ASD-diagnosed students are serviced through 25 classes run by the county office of education. These pupils originate from 16 school districts in the county, and range from infant to high school age.

Each county-run ASD classroom—located on a handful of campuses across the county—has one teacher, two or three teaching assistants, and an average of four to six students. In addition to the teachers, MCOE hires speech and occupational therapists, which are in extremely high demand statewide, to visit the classrooms about once a week. For some students, MCOE also contracts an additional personal teaching assistant who splits his or her time between the school and the child’s home.

That means that sometimes there are more adult educators in an MCOE classroom than there are children. For many ASD-diagnosed students, however, that’s simply necessary.