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Punishment won’t do any good.Without any details, it’s hard to give you any specific advice. What kind of special education services are available for students with autism in your location? Is this student receiving them? Have you received any training on working with students who have autism? Are there any specialists who can help you?Here are some articles that might help you get started.https://www.autismspeaks.org/sites/default/files/documents/family-services/faq_teaching.pdfYour Child's RightsAutism, ASD, PDD, Asperger's SyndromeThings You Should Know about Autism and Special EducationAutism Spectrum Disorders SeriesStrategies for Teachers Working with Students with Autism Spectrum DisorderEducational Resources for Special Needshttps://www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/Teaching-Tips-for-Children-and-Adults-with-Autism

I can only speak for my Warrior Princess (WP), as I’ve witnessed first-hand what has happened with teacher pay through her.The TL;DR version: yes, the vast majority of teachers in Arizona (one of the three states having protests) are ridiculously underpaid, and the entire system is underfunded.First, a little background: my wife (WP) received her BA in Education back in 1999. Her emphasis is in special education…you know, not an easy world to enter.She initially was highly recruited and went into the “for-profit” education world, where she helped an endless stream of children suffering from a series of disabilities: learning disability, emotional disability, ADHD, autism, you name it. And she was damn good at it. She was involved in early testing of facilitated communication,[1] and was among the first to show that it was a fraud.During those days, WP was bringing in extremely good money; in her final year doing that work, 2001, our taxes showed that she’d made over $70k.Then…she got pregnant, and the weird hours and travel made her realize she couldn’t keep doing that type of work. Plus, something had been missing for her, so she decided to go into the schools and teach. She immediately took a $40k/yr pay cut to do so. But, she was well-rewarded by being able to help out the kids that needed it the most, those that were special-needs, but whose parents didn’t have the money to send them to the high-end schools.The first school she taught at was in far-west Phoenix, and was a nearly 30-minute commute. Combining that and fuel, she couldn’t keep teaching there long and moved to a school closer to home in 2007; sadly, something they don’t tell you in college is that if you change schools within a school district, your pay stays the same, but if you leave that district, you start from the bottom again. So, all 4 years of raises she’d received were wiped out.At her new school, she was doing great. She taught the same subject, Reading, but still to special-needs kids, and since she taught the same things each year, her first year was the only killer year where she spent hours every day planning the next day’s lessons. After that first year, each year got easier.Of course, as a special education teacher, she still had a LOT on her plate; she spent several hours each day working on Individualized Education Plans, IEPs, that were catered to each child in special education. These plans take HOURS to write up, then require multiple meetings with the child’s teachers and, finally, a meeting with the parent(s). It is very time-consuming.Then…the economy crashed.In May of 2009, pretty much the entire teaching staff in the state of Arizona was given an ultimatum: take a $5k per year pay cut or don’t come back the next year. The caveat was, when the economy bounced back, they would get raised back up to their previous payMy WP loved her kids and her school, so she agreed.Each of the next few years, as the economy completely rebounded, WP received raises of less than .5%. She even went back to school and got her Masters degree, only to see her pay go up $300…per year.During those same years, her job transformed. Due to budget cuts, WP was now forced to cover other subjects: math, and non-special education classes. She was now doing IEPs for her students, as well as lesson plans for 3 other subjects.Those same budget cuts took away pay for substitute teachers, requiring about 3/4 of teacher absences to be covered by other teachers who alternate covering classes during their lunch breaks and their “prep” periods. This means that all IEP work and lesson planning is done outside of school hours; it’s not uncommon for WP to work 12 hours on each weekend day to be prepared for the next week.This upcoming year, 2018–2019, WP will finally have received enough in raises, between annual increases and her Masters, to finally be back to where she was in 2008–2009, which is actually just barely above where she was when she started teaching in 2002–2003.And yet, she still makes just over half of what she did in the for-profit world.I also must point out that I’ve been blessed in having full-time benefits and medical insurance throughout these years. Last year, I became a contractor and spent 10 months without benefits. I went on WP’s insurance: $330 per paycheck, every two weeks, to cover me and our kids.A starting teacher in Arizona can expect an annual salary of $32k. Now, if that person has kids, subtract about $9k of that for insurance.Then, pay for daycare for those kids.School supplies for the kids that can’t afford them.Comfortable shoes and clothes that inevitably get ruined when a kid tries attacking you with a Sharpie.All that stuff that goes up on the walls in the classroom.Get the picture?This isn’t easy. Back when WP first started in the public school, $32k was a decent salary for somebody who didn’t work the summers, took several vacations, and was, essentially, working an 8-hour day with a lunch and a “free period”. I actually kinda envied her a bit. But, things have changed, dramatically. She now goes into school at 7:30am, gets home about 5:30–6pm, with no lunch or “prep” on most days, and then works from home for an hour or so, then probably works every other weekend.She gets paid less than half of my salary. I have no degree, while she has two. I’m a bumbling idiot who spends a large portion of his day just insulting the people around him at work while she spends every day under a constant threat of assault from kids, either just a special needs kid blowing up on her (most of her students are larger than her) or the wonderful “kid with a rifle”.Yeah, something’s seriously broken.Footnotes[1] Facilitated communication - Wikipedia

Only 2.5% of former foster children will earn a bachelor’s degree.2.5% of former foster children will earn a bachelor’s degree.Why is that number so small? Here are my thoughts based on research and experiences.Students who were or are in foster care should be provided special services.Many students who were in foster care like myself, have mental/emotional delays. This then causes us to need special services.Most students who have been in foster care have experienced traumatic events that delay their ability to comprehend the idea of completing school, let alone a bachelor’s degree.Some states offer free tuition waivers for former/foster students in state colleges and university programs, but not all foster students are aware of this. Eliminating the cost of tuition is a huge deal but that doesn’t necessarily make completing college easier for students who have been through trauma.One last thought,Many former/foster students in elementary, junior high and high schools move around. They switch foster homes and they lose classes in public school. For example: if a student gets half of history at one school, then when they move they are already behind at another school. These losses of classes and time greatly impact their learning. If I don’t learn multiplication because I was moving then I won’t be able to do algebra in high school or college. Now add trauma into that. I sit in class and I’m supposed to learn long division,vbut I don’t remember learning subtraction and I’m separated from my siblings. That is a lot to ask of a student. Those significant academic losses can impact eventually getting a bachelor’s degree. So, my theory is, schools need to be more accountable and help foster students to not lose those classes. Especially when a foster child moves within the same state, we should be able to keep them more on track than we are. My opinion is that students in foster care in public school should be labeled as special education and get special education services because their special need is “lack of a family.” They need the support and they need extra services. Many of them would benefit greatly from support from school because often foster homes can’t provide support.So, that is the statistic that makes me saddest.I am so fortunate to be one of those 2.5% who did get a bachelor’s degree.(I’m on the right!)