DDS Autism Grants: iPads and Educational Tutoring
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 
Two very common questions about the 2011 Autism Grant are:
Can I use the funds to buy an iPad?
Can I use the funds for outside tutoring?
DDS has replied with an answer that warns families to craft such requests carefully:
All the requests have to be linked to the autism and why this specific request is being made to address needs that exist simply because of the diagnosis of autism. iPads are the next best thing, but why is that item needed specifically rather than another piece of equipment. The requests are being evaluated for the individual with Autism and are to be used by them at home. Grant funds shouldn’t be used to purchase items for school use.
Your request should list very specific tutoring or software programs to address autism of your child. For instance, a non-verbal child who needs a communication device at home could submit that item as a grant request.
A great online autism therapy product is rethink autism, a web-based autism treatment platform. You'll need a computer with a fairly fast internet connection, but it's as low as $59 a month, with $25 a month for live help. There are great video libraries to show you exactly what you need to do to help your child.
Since these types of requests are tricky to word, I would protect yourself by making sure you have additional needs listed for the grant. You can contact me if you need additional assistance on your application.
Grant Application Materials can be found here.
Eye Contact Arkansas
**Correction**
If the difficulty is a learning disability that isn’t tied to the Autism, I don’t think the testing and tutoring could be covered under the grant. If it is directly tied to the Autism and there’s written notice from the school that it is not covered by the school, I would say submit it and we’ll see what the reviewer thinks. As such, there’s not a specific category, so, if approved would have to go under the Other category.