Senate Bill sb2654

    Florida Senate - 2000        (NP)                      SR 2654

    By Senators Forman and Scott





    32-1926-00

  1                    Senate Resolution No. ____

  2         A resolution designating the month of April

  3         2000 as "Autism Awareness Month" in this state.

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  5         WHEREAS, autism is a complex and puzzling

  6  neurobiological disorder that severely impairs the ability of

  7  individuals to process and integrate ordinary information from

  8  their environment, and

  9         WHEREAS, autism severely affects the way autistic

10  individuals relate to others socially and their ability to

11  communicate and learn, and

12         WHEREAS, Broward County has approximately 1,000

13  autistic children and young adults, who comprise one of the

14  largest such populations in the United States, and

15         WHEREAS, autism strikes 1 in every 700 children and is

16  now considered the most common disability, and

17         WHEREAS, autism affects all five senses, causing either

18  very acute deficits in functioning or, sometimes, the complete

19  absence of functioning with consistency, and

20         WHEREAS, autism is unidentifiable until an individual

21  is between 18 and 24 months of age and often does not manifest

22  itself until well into the second or third year of life, and

23         WHEREAS, with the proper treatment and intensive

24  therapy, it is possible for many autistic children to progress

25  to a point at which they are indistinguishable from their

26  peers, and

27         WHEREAS, nationally, April has been designated as

28  "Autism Awareness Month," and

29         WHEREAS, the Florida Senate encourages all of us to

30  educate ourselves with respect to the effects of autism and

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    Florida Senate - 2000        (NP)                      SR 2654
    32-1926-00




  1  the therapies available for individuals with autism, NOW,

  2  THEREFORE,

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  4  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

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  6         That the Florida Senate designates the month of April

  7  2000 as "Autism Awareness Month" in Florida.

  8         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution,

  9  with the Seal of the Senate affixed, be presented to the

10  Broward County Commission, as a tangible token of the

11  sentiments of the Florida Senate.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.