Members of the Alabama Autism Task Force say they will ask lawmakers to approve $1 million in next year's education budget to improve services for students who have the disorder. State Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, is the co-chair of the task force and says the $1 million is a small price to pay.

"You're not talking about a significant amount compared to the amount of help we'll be able to provide," he said.

The 35-member group is assessing the state's autism needs along with researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and is holding meetings on the issue across Alabama.

Many comments at a Tuscaloosa meeting this week addressed the difficulties people experience in navigating services, from getting a proper early diagnosis to linking up with much needed state-provided services.

"The need finally is being recognized that this is a struggle for parents," said Tracy Camp, who has an 8-year-old son with autism and leads a support group in Tuscaloosa. "We should not have to scrape and claw for services, but that's what many parents are doing."

The Birmingham News reported Wednesday that 2,373 autistic students were enrolled in Alabama's public schools for K-12th grades as of Dec. 1, which is 0.3 percent of the roughly 740,000 students enrolled then.

Ward said he and other task force members believe many more students have autism but haven't been properly identified.

Autism is a developmental disability that affects social interaction and communication. Some people with autism display repetitive behavior, such as rocking. Some have strong desires to keep their daily routines unchanged.

The task force will ask lawmakers to set aside $520,000 to hire eight behavioral specialists, $210,000 to hire graduate students in special education, $181,600 for professional-development seminars and $96,000 to increase summer training for teachers with autistic students.

Autism advocates and service providers who are pushing for legislation that would extend services say most state-supported services vanish after the students turn 21.

"There is not enough services, and certainly not enough coordinated services," said Laura Grofer Klinger, director of UA's Autism Spectrum Disorders Research Clinic and a member of the research team.

"We are struggling," she told the Tuscaloosa News. "We are not the only state that is struggling but we are not meeting the needs. ... We are going to have to look at revamping the continuum of care for autism in the state and hopefully getting a coordinated system of care in place."

Rep. Richard Lindsey, D-Centre, who chairs the Education Appropriations Committee of the state House of Representatives, said he's talked with Ward about the spending request and thinks the plan is a good one.

But Lindsey said he's not sure the state Education Trust Fund, which is budgeted to spend $6.7 billion this year, will grow enough to add another spending item in fiscal 2009, which starts Oct. 1.

"In the big scheme of things, $1 million isn't a tremendous hurdle to overcome," he said. "But in a year when you may be looking at making some cuts, it gets very difficult."