CSESA

The Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (CSESA) was a research and development project funded by the U.S. Department of Education that focused on developing, adapting, and studying a comprehensive school and community-based education program for high school students on the autism spectrum.

CSESA Research Activities

The Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism (CSESA) has conducted a series of research activities including focus groups, small pilot studies, and a large scale randomized control trial to develop, refine, and evaluate a comprehensive intervention program for high schools serving individuals on the autism spectrum. Learn more about our research through a review of our presentations and publications.

CSESA Leadership Activities

The Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism (CSESA) was a national leader in the discussion of adolescence, autism, and high school. We developed many resources that can be accessed and used by individuals on the autism spectrum, families, educators, researchers, and/or other community members.

Note: As of December 2024 this website has been archived, which means several functions, including the search and filter, are no longer active. All CSESA-developed materials remain free and accessible for ongoing use.

Research Activities

Conference Presentations

The CSESA research team has presented findings at local, national, and international conferences since 2012. This page provides many conference presentations.

Articles

The CSESA research team has written journal articles that cover a variety of topics related to education for high schoolers on the autism spectrum and our CSESA findings. This page provides a brief description of the articles, and links to the journal articles.

More Research Activities

Key Resources

Peer-to-Peer Series

These resources are designed by young adults for young adults on topics important to individuals on the autism spectrum. They include flyers, handouts, and more.

Autism at-a-Glance

These short handouts covering important topics for youth and young adults on the autism spectrum, designed specifically for families, educators, practitioners, community members and more.

More Resources

What People Say About CSESA

“These are skills you can take with you to college.”

– Peer about her experiences in Peer Networks

“I think that the more [my son] interactions with positive peers, the more comfortable he becomes with all interactions.”

– Parent about her son’s experiences in a Peer Network

“It was exciting to see how quickly [the student] learned the steps to the task analysis and how quickly he began implementing his new strategies.”

– Teacher about a student’s progress in independence

“My student was bringing all 6 of his binders to my class, and assignments were getting lost. It was also disruptive to have him spreading out all his stuff. His new organized binder, with just a folder for each class, has helped him be much more organized.”

– Teacher about how independence and behavior intervention helped a student

“I never understood how social students with disabilities really are. Getting to know [the student] has really opened my eyes to my peers with disabilities.”

– Peer about participating in Peer Supports