By James Rincon

Pflag Reporter

In “The Wizard of Oz,” the Scarecrow gets a brain, the Cowardly Lion get courage and the Tin Man gets a heart, but in Caldwell Elementary’s Tuesday performances of the L. Frank Baum’s classic, another special group of students got what they needed – a chance to shine.

Students in the school’s Intensive Resource Inclusion program, which integrates autistic students into general educational classrooms, were joined by some of their general education peers for three weeks of practice to bring the songs and story of the Land of Oz to life.

“It has really brought such a collaborative spirit among the entire campus. It’s just embraced,” Caldwell Principal Sonya Collins said. “We don’t treat it as something different, but we do know they need extra support, and so it’s just a wonderful thing we have going on at Caldwell.”

Pflugerville ISD implemented support programs for autistic students seven years ago, implementing research-based analysis to teach communicative skills to verbal and nonverbal students.

“We really use that process to figure out what the kids are saying to say to us and then help them use whatever mode of language that they need to communicate their needs so that their challenging behavior decreases,” PISD autism instructional coach Kim Peters said.

Caldwell’s annual performance is Peters’ brainchild and has played for five years to an ever-growing audience. Peters employs readers’ theater literacy strategies to aid the students with their blocking and lines.

“I was thinking, it would be great if we got some of [the IRI students’] inclusion peers and we did a little play,” Peters said. “Each year the production has gotten a little bit bigger, and so the last three years we’ve had 75 to 100 people coming to this. The superintendent comes. It’s a very special day.”

Caldwell Educational assistant Rebecca Hernandez headed the organization of this year’s production, with which she will complete her master’s degree project at Texas State University.

“We started with interviewing inclusion teachers and asking them what they thought about the program because we actually pool, not just our kids, but their gen-ed peers, and we’ve been practicing 3 times a week since January.”

Hernandez will also interview parents of the autistic students to see how they were affected and if they saw any changes in their child’s behavior.

“One of the things that touches me the most is when you see their gen-ed peers, and you can’t tell who is autistic and who is a general-ed peer because they really help each other,” Hernandez said. “I feel like by starting this young we are creating little ambassadors that go out when they’re in middle school and there is someone making fun of a student with autism, they’re going to say, ‘They might be different, but don’t do that because they’re just like us.’ I feel like we’re creating a mentality that celebrates diversity.”

Hernandez worked alongside IRI teachers Jessica Boxley and Danielle Stilson to ready the students for their opening night under the supervision of Katy Davenport who oversees all PISD autism units.

“What is does for our kids with autism and their parents – they don’t ever get to see their kids included. They can’t take their kids to daycare; they can’t sometimes take their kids to the library, so they get to come into an environment that celebrates their children. Just to see the smiles on the parents’ faces is priceless,” Peters said.