Stafford County’s Heather Empfield School and Transition Center has won a National Association of Counties (NACO) Achievement Award for its successful and creative approach to addressing an educational issue in the community. The Achievement Awards are given to innovative county government programs across the United States.

The Stafford Office of Human Services and Stafford County Public Schools founded the Heather Empfield Day School in 2009 in response to the rising number of students with autism, intellectual disabilities, and emotional disabilities. The number of children with autism enrolled in Stafford Schools has tripled in the last 10 years and continues to rise. The Centers for Disease Control estimates one in 88 children has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder.

The school is named for Heather Empfield, a coordinator of Autism Programs for the Stafford School system who died unexpectedly at the age of 38. The school is a place where kids who have difficulty functioning in a public school setting can learn skills that help them academically, at home, and in the community with the ultimate goal of returning them to public school. The school uses a combination of specially trained teachers, paraprofessionals, behavior support assistants, and therapists to provide students with a highly structured academic program focusing on math and literacy, a personalized sensory treatment, and a vocational program for learning job skills.

“The best part of the school winning a national award is that other localities can gain inspiration from what we did here in Stafford,” said Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Susan Stimpson, Falmouth District. “Human Services and our school system came up with an efficient, cost-effective way to provide cutting-edge services to make a difference in the lives of children and their families.”

Before the creation of the day school, students were educated outside the county at private schools at a cost to Stafford County of $45,000 to $109,000 per student annually. Today, the average cost of a student at the day school is $28,000, a significant savings.

For more information about the school, contact Stafford County Public Schools Student Services at (540) 658-6500.