Improving Autism Program Quality in Special Education Units: The Use of an APERS-based Model to Support Student Learning and Participation

In the experimental group, labeled APERS+, APERS assessments will be carried out to rate the overall program quality for students with autism/SCCs within the SEUs. These ratings will be made by researchers (PI and doctoral candidate) and a team of specially trained coaches consisting of 5-6 special educators working for the educational administration unit (Utbildningsförvaltningen) of Stockholm Municipality. The SEUs will be provided written and oral feedback based on the ratings

In the APERS+ contingency, the coaches then develop an action plan in order to improve program quality of the SEUs. Staff in the participating SEUs will also participate in a half-day of lectures and workshops about autism and other SCCs. Coaches will lastly provide weekly or bi-weekly coaching sessions in the SEUs based on the action plan to promote program quality and implement evidence-based practices. The intervention for each SEU will last for approximately 7-8 months.

APERS assessments with written and oral feedback. Creation of an action plan that is continuously followed up by specially trained coaches weekly or bi-weekly in coaching sessions designed to support the use of evidence-based practices in school settings. Half-day lecture about autism and related SCCs.

In the control group, APERS assessments will also be carried out by researchers and/or coaches. Written and oral feedback will be provided, but no further coaching will be given and no action plan will be created.

The APERS-Primary-SE is a rating scale designed to examine primary school program quality for students with autism or related sociocommunicative challenges in Sweden. It contains 10 domains including areas such as students' personal independence and competence, and challenging behaviors. The scale consists of 58 items rated on a five-point Likert scale (1= low quality, 5 = high quality) resulting in individual item scores, subdomain scores, domain scores, and a total score.

The HIFAMS is a questionnaire designed to assess the happiness and subjective well-being of children in school. It will be completed by all participating children in the study. The questionnaire consists of 8 items where the child is asked how they feel about their school life. The items are scored using a three-point facial Likert scale (sad face, neutral face, happy face). The faces are converted into numerical scores (0-2).

The ICF Core Sets for Autism is a questionnaire where parents rate their child's functioning. It contains 37 items pertaining bodily functions, activities and participation as well as contextual factors that may affect the child's functioning. Responses are given on a Likert scale ranging from either 0 to 10 (individual factors) or -5 to 5 (contextual factors), where higher ratings indicate higher levels of functioning and/or participation.

The Autism Self-Efficacy Scale for Teachers is a questionnaire where teachers rate their perceived self-efficacy in supporting students with autism and related SCCs in their classroom. It consists of 28 items and is rated on a six-point Likert scale from 0 to 5. Higher ratings indicate higher self-efficacy.

The Goal Attainment Scale is a scale used to support, monitor and assess individual goal attainment in children with autism. Goals are created collaboratively by teachers and coaches at baseline and tailored to each child's individual needs and capacity. Goal attainment is assessed by coaches at follow-up on a five-step Likert scale, where 0 is baseline and 4 is exceeding goals.

A scale designed to asses the social validity of the procedures, goals, and outcomes of the study by participating school staff and coaches. It consists of 12 items rated on a Likert scale from 0 to 5, where higher ratings indicate higher levels of perceived social validity.

The SRS-2 is a scale designed to identify the presence and severity of social impairment within the autism spectrum and to differentiate it from difficulties associated with other conditions. Used in the current study to assess the level of social challenges for the participating children. The scale contains 65 items and is rated by the children's parents or guardians. Each item is rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 4, where 1 is "not true" and 4 is "almost always true". Higher scores indicate more severe social impairment associated with autism.