Some families with children with autism fear that changes proposed by the Department of Education will reduce services to their children and will put youngsters through unnecessary and difficult transitions.

"Any kind of change or disruption in the program is a setback for your child and they will regress," said parent Kalma Wong, whose two youngest children are autistic.

In a bid to update services and increase the skills of trainers, as parents and the federal government expect, the DOE will be replacing some private trainers who teach children social and other skills with DOE employees. Far from reducing costs, the DOE says the changes will cost more — although final tallies are not available yet. Administrators say service will remain the same or could improve because of higher training requirements for some of the professionals that will serve the children.

Parents remain concerned.

Michael Moriyama, whose 9-year-old son has been diagnosed with both autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder, said changing the two-person team overseeing his son's education for the past three years could be a serious setback.

"What the DOE is not considering is that if they stick two new people on the team, it takes months to get everybody up to speed," Moriyama said. "It takes months of adjustment."

Estimates are that autism affects one in 500 children and encompasses a range of brain disorders that impair three main areas of development: speech, communication and social interaction. The condition can range from mild to severe. While no one is sure what causes Autism Spectrum Disorders, as this group of disorders is called, and there is no known cure, behaviors can be improved with intensive individualized education.

The DOE says the changes are part of an overall goal to build department expertise in providing for the needs of autistic children. That has meant a contracting change, with three agencies losing contracts and one company picking up a contract. DOE said the contracts' costs were not immediately available last week.

DOE administrators said that while the providers will change for 307 of the 1,165 children with autism served by the DOE, services will remain the same.

"Services will not be changed or diminished," said Debra Farmer, administrator of the DOE's special-education section. "The provider will be different, the agency will be different but our schools are working very hard to make sure this transfer is as painless as possible."

The service changes are targeted for Oct. 1.

But in one case, concerns expressed at a recent Board of Education meeting have caused superintendent Pat Hamamoto and board chairman Breene Harimoto to ask that the contract with a rural agency, North Shore Mental Health, be extended to enable a smooth transition for the 135 children it serves.

"I've been told by the Board of Education chairman and Pat Hamamoto they both want to look into this and make it better," said Dan Kehoe, who heads that agency and appealed for an extension. Kehoe told the board his concern is the number of transitions the children are facing.

Parent Jana Hanawahine, whose 8-year-old son, Jayce, is in second grade at Koko Head Elementary, said her child is no longer being trained in necessary skills to succeed in school and life, but is simply being baby-sat.

"His bad habits are coming back," said Hanawahine. "They're not correcting the social things that need to be corrected."

In comparison to the private "skills trainer" who has a bachelor's degree in psychology and has been with her son for the past two years, she said the boy now has a revolving series of three educational assistants who have lesser qualifications and were hired by the school.

"With autism, continuity is key," said Wong, who has seen her own 5-year-old son progress "by leaps and bounds" in the past year because of a California program they've imported. But now, because the new contract requires five years experience for supervisors, she will lose the woman who has been working with her son. That person has 4 1/2 years of experience.

"You can't just throw someone else in her place," said Wong. "That's the scary part. You don't know who they'll put in. It takes a long time to build a good program and a good team. When you throw new people in, you're starting from square one again."

While DOE administrators are concerned about the changes families will face, they say change is inevitable, and the children must learn to handle it.

"A letter was given to every parent," said Farmer. "Each school team will meet with the parent to talk about transfer in services."

Naomi Grossman, president of the advocacy group Autism Society of Hawai'i, sees the new proposals as part of a gradual erosion of services guaranteed to families under the Felix consent decree. In a recent letter to the Board of Education, Grossman said "parents are experiencing unilateral decisions by DOE staff to remove services without parental input or agreement."

"Ever since 2002 it's been one dismantling after another," said Grossman. "And parents don't know how to fight it. We're getting calls right and left from parents crying, saying 'What should I do?' "

Parent Clarrie Selbe agrees with that assessment.

"Autism is the most challenging of all disabilities," said Selbe, "and they are trying to replace skilled professionals with people who do not have a bachelor of education degree, who are less trained with children with autism.

"It's becoming an adversarial situation for parents with special-needs children and it should be just the opposite," said Selbe. "It gives us so much anxiety. No parent should have to go through the frustration we are going through."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.