New Jersey § 30:6d-57

§ 30:6d-57.

The Legislature finds and declares that: a. Autism and autism spectrum disorders are biologically-based developmental disorders which

cause severe impairments in language and communication and generally manifest in young

children sometime during the first two years of life, and the devastation caused by

autism lasts a lifetime due to the emotional and financial distress that families

experience from the intense support which most individuals with autism require throughout

their lives; b. With three quarters of those with autism spending their adult lives in institutions or group homes, and usually entering

institutions by the age of 13, the cost of caring for individuals with autism and

autism spectrum disorder s is great, and is estimated to be $.5 billion per year in the State, solely for direct

costs; c. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, one of

every 94 children in this State has autism, which is the highest rate among the states

examined by the CDC in the most comprehensive study of the prevalence of autism to

date ; d. While autism is the third most common developmental disorder and is more prevalent than

Down's syndrome, childhood cancer or cystic fibrosis, autism research receives less

than 5% of the funding of these other diseases from the federal government and to

date little biomedical research has been done on this disorder, despite the fact that

scientists consider autism to be one of the most heritable of all the developmental

disorders and the most likely to yield to the latest scientific advancements in genetics

and neurology; e. The lack of research was due to 40 years of neglect of autism by the scientific

community, arising from the formerly widespread but now discredited belief that autism

was an emotional disorder caused by faulty parenting, and thus, few dollars were allocated

to researchers, leaving an entire generation of children to be overlooked; however,

the rapid advancements in biomedical science suggest that effective treatment and

a cure for autism are attainable, if sufficient dollars are allocated to research

so that another generation of children in the State is not lost to this disorder; f. While promising findings in the field of autism research have been made in recent

years, the diverse symptoms and etiology of autism require a high level of activity

in the widest variety of scientific fields, from genetics and neurology to neuroimaging,

immunology and gastroenterology, if effective treatments and a cure are to be found

quickly; g. Other states such as New York, Connecticut and Maryland have nationally recognized

centers for researching and treating autism that attract significant funding from

private sources and the National Institutes of Health, but since New Jersey lacks

such centers, the State is unable to attract comparable funding, despite the presence

of highly regarded medical facilities in the State such as Robert Wood Johnson University

Hospital and Hackensack University Medical Center, as well as a higher education medical

institution such as the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; 1 h. The State's substantial pharmaceutical industry would benefit from having medical

centers dedicated to autism research and treatment by gaining access to families for

clinical trials and by enabling easy collaboration between public and private scientists;

and i. Legislation has been introduced in the United States Congress which, if passed,

will increase the level of federal funding for biomedical research on autism; however,

in order for State researchers to be eligible for these dollars, funding must be made

available for State researchers to carry out preliminary pilot studies. 1

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey transferred to Rutgers, The State

University, pursuant to N.J.S.A. § 18A:65-94.