

The ASD Nest Support Project is one of several community-focused programs serving special populations hosted by NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The goal of the ASD Nest Support Project is to partner with public schools to establish inclusive cultures and advance the development and implementation of educational practices for autistic learners.
The ASD Nest Support Project provides training, professional development, and on-site consultation for teachers, therapists, and administrators, and workshops and a newsletter for ASD Nest parents. Other activities include research, presentations at national professional organizations, and articles and other publications on relevant topics.
NYU's partnership with New York City’s Department of Education (NYCDOE) and Hunter College’s School of Education began in 2001 to fill a gap in the programs the NYCDOE offered for children on the autism spectrum. The fruit of that collaboration was the new ASD Nest program, piloted at PS 32 in Brooklyn in September 2003. Its goal was and is to help these children learn how to function well academically, behaviorally and socially in school and in their community.
Now, in the 2022 - 2023 school year, the ASD Nest program in New York City serves:
The NYCDOE and individual Nest schools provide contracts to support and facilitate the development and expansion of the ASD Nest program, as well as to provide professional development for staff members of ASD Nest schools.
We acknowledge with gratitude the early support of the FAR Fund, Independence Community Foundation (now Brooklyn Community Foundation), Overbrook Foundation and Tides Foundation, and the ongoing support of the FAR Fund for parent support activities.
The collaborative team of DOE educators who initially developed and nurtured the ASD Nest Program with the guidance of Professor Shirley Cohen of Hunter College and Dorothy Siegel of NYU were: Ruth Blankiet, David Cohen, Carmen Farina, Sherry Koslov, Ann Marie Lettieri-Baker and Steve Rosen. Terry Feuer and Linda Wernikoff provided invaluable support as the program got off the ground.
The ASD Nest Model is a fully inclusive therapeutic environment designed for autistic students who are able to do grade-level academic work when provided the necessary support. This is a strengths-based model utilizing positive support strategies, targeted instructional strategies and specialized social interventions to make inclusion work well for all learners in the classroom. The ASD Nest school and district provide the necessary structures for the model, such as; including smaller class size, co-taught classes, regular interdisciplinary team meetings to promote consistency across all settings, and a strong home-school collaboration.
Supports school-age students with ASD in both developing academic skills and building their social competencies.
Helps strengthen self-advocacy skills to lay the groundwork for independent functioning in their educational careers.
Helps adolescents and emerging adults with ASD learn how to function well academically, behaviorally and socially, and become ready to attain their full, unique potential as competent, independent and happy adults.
ASD Nest is a school inclusion model for students with autism spectrum disorders, in which students with ASD are educated in their neighborhood school alongside their general education peers. Educators teach the general education curriculum, using specialized supports drawn from evidence-based and promising practices. Students are helped to develop competence in their social and behavioral functioning, in order to ultimately realize their full, unique potential as independent and happy adults.
Below are the core beliefs, structures, and practices that comprise the ASD Nest Model Framework.
Built on a foundation of solid instructional practice, Nest classroom supports are devised to help students with ASD and benefit general education students
Collaboration takes place through a series of structures with a variety of stakeholders, at all levels of the model
Nest schools, under the leadership of their principals, commit to implementing the model; districts commit to funding for the program, for training staff, and for other school system supports
Several shared beliefs serve as the foundation upon which all structures and practices are built