Lovington, NM: 300% increase in autism due to "increased awareness"; school serves 68

Aug 24, 2025, Albuquerque Journal: Autism center in Lovington earns national recognition 

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_1acc819d-7e39-4675-81a8-e7dd842451ae.html 

LOVINGTON — Jaren Gonzalez appears to remember two things about everybody he has met: Their date of birth and their favorite beverage.

During a recent visit to his childhood school, the 22-year-old, wearing multiple bracelets and necklaces with tags, unfailingly recalled his former teachers’ birthdays and their preferred coffees, teas or sodas.

As a first grader in 2010, Gonzalez was among the original students of what is now the Lovington Autism Center for Education and Services, or LACES, part of the Lovington Municipal School District. In 2010, it served 16 students. This year, it serves 68 elementary students with a staff of 34.

It began as a small autism resource team with training from autism specialists at the University of New Mexico, figuring out how to serve a growing population of students with special needs. In its 15th year, LACES is a full-fledged autism education center, sought out by other educators and institutions as a model.

In June, LACES won the National School Boards Association’s Magna Award honoring “innovation and creativity in solving an education challenge.”

Lovington Schools Superintendent Pamela Quinones told the Journal the center “has grown into a vital hub that not only provides students with essential academic and social opportunities but also raises awareness and understanding across our entire community.”

LACES occupies a former vocational education building on the public schools’ campus, as well as a new portable trailer, a playground and a classroom space within the sixth-grade academy. LACES has also spawned satellite programs serving middle and high school students.

When LACES began, special education teacher Cheryl Amundsen taught preschool at a time when teachers and parents confronted a growing challenge.

“For some reason, we had this influx of children with really high needs, that had autism or were in the midst of getting diagnosed,” Amundsen recalled. “Parents were coming to us and saying, ‘This is so hard. What am I doing?’”

Diagnoses of the developmental condition known as autism spectrum disorder have increased 300% over 20 years, as reported this summer by the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Development Disabilities. The center’s vice-director, Christine Ladd-Acosta, attributed that figure to “a gradual rise over the past 20 years due to broadened diagnostic definitions, better screening and increased awareness” in an interview for the Public Health On Call podcast.

Individuals with autism vary widely in their symptoms and needs, and no single cause has been determined. Autism can affect speech and communication; social behavior and relationships; reactions to light, sound or other sensations; fulfillment of tasks and routines; and regulating emotions or physical movements.

It also presents problems for school settings, particularly in smaller communities like Lovington, a city of under 12,000 people north of Hobbs, in New Mexico’s southeast corner. Last year, the school district served 3,400 students, of whom 85% identified as Hispanic or Latino, with 18% of its students receiving special education services.

Initially, certain staff members underwent training and autism-specific classrooms were established at school sites, but with staff turnover and growing need, Amundsen and other Lovington staff built a central hub for services instead. . . .

Some children may spend their entire school day at LACES, while others come for particular services or instruction, or simply to cool down in one of the sensory rooms, with low lighting, ball pits and spaces to curl up. . . .