TAMPA, Fla. — Parents of autistic students in Hillsborough County are coming together to change current applied behavior analysis therapy legislation. 

They created the “Project ABA Rights” group to urge lawmakers to make changes, ensuring the tool is available to students across the state.

What You Need To Know

  • ABA therapy refers to applied behavior analysis, which a group of Hillsborough County parents is working to make more available to students with autism
  • A local group called "Project ABA Rights"  is working to change current law to make that happen

  • The group is hosting a "Let's Talk About ABA" event on Oct. 18 at 10:00 a.m. at Raining Berries South Tampa

School Board Member Karen Perez says ABA therapy is imperative for autistic students.

“They help with language, they help with the support in the class," she said. "Those supports are so imperative for a child’s behavior, for their learning to be able to get accommodated in the classrooms, for that support system to be able to make friends. It’s just very important for our students to have that ABA therapy and support in the classes."

Tamara Perez’s son, Grayson, was diagnosed with autism at 3 years old. He’s had an ABA therapist in school with him every day, and she said you can see the difference the therapy has made just by looking at his school pictures over the years.

“You can see his confidence is really coming through as the years go on and he’s feeling calm and confident," Tamara said. "I really feel like you can see it in the pictures."

So last year, when his principal suddenly threatened to do away with ABA therapy, and not allow the therapists into schools, she said the prospect worried her.

“It was super traumatic and very scary that the therapy was removed from him and everything he had gained, everything we worked for since he was a little baby, would be lost," Tamara said.

Perez got to work spreading the word. She made a video explaining that ABA therapy was being threatened, despite it not costing the school anything, and technically being required by law.

“There is a sentence in the law that we feel is more of a loophole that says the principal or teacher does have to agree to the time or place, and depending on how you read the law, if you’re reading from a collaboration, and you’re intending to collaborate, the law makes sense if you’re reading it and you’re trying not to collaborate and get out of that, you have a different interpretation,” she said.

Her video went viral and Project ABA Rights was born. Grayson’s principal has since had a change of heart, and is allowing the therapy, but Tamara is working with parents across the state to change the verbiage of the law to ensure no students are forced to go without this valuable help. 

Hillsborough County Schools Interim Superintendent Van Ayres, and Board Member Karen Perez are joining Project ABA Rights for an event on Oct. 18 to talk about ABA therapy in Hillsborough County schools.