Shahidah Dunbar, a veteran special education teacher at Marion P. Thomas Charter School in Newark, is helping her students “burst the bubble” of autism awareness, a cause near to her heart as both a teacher of students with autism and a mother of a child with the same diagnosis.

What does raising autism awareness look like as we celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, signed into law in 1975, which entitles all students to a free and appropriate public education?

It means, Dunbar told NJ Education Report, her students with autism know that during the activities she organizes it is their “turn to shine!”

Over the past years Dunbar has created an instructional module that is used for all MPTCS’s K-8 students. In the beginning of the year, teachers sign up for committees to organize a series of activities, including essay contests and poster contests, sensory days, and coin drives. She distributes lesson plans, texts, and videos in order for students to understand how to befriend classmates with learning differences. “Our kids love it,” she enthuses.

All of this activity culminates every April during Autism Awareness Month when MPTCS has its own “Autism Awareness Week” with activities scheduled every day. For instance, on Sensory Day, there are stations for building blocks and using binoculars, magnifying glasses, and kaleidoscopes. For School Spirit Week, students become superheroes for autism awareness. The coin drive, “Kids and Coins for Autism,”  raises  money to help those affected by autism and increase public awareness, safety from wandering, bully awareness, family crisis assistance, job training, housing and research, with proceeds going to Nasan’s Place. The class which raises the most money gets a pizza party. (MPTCS was honored at the most recent Nasan’s Place Gala.)

One year, Dunbar relates, she was feeling stressed out and had just about decided MPTCS would skip the week this time. Her students protested, “Ms. Dunbar, we are doing  Autism Awareness Week! You have to do it!” (She did.)

The week concludes with an event that has spread throughout New Jersey (and the world) called “Blow Bubbles 4 Autism,” originally created by the South Jersey non-profit Faces 4 Autism to foster acceptance, a sense of community, and an awareness for the importance of celebrating diversity. 

Enjoy the photos!