Nevada: Legislature to hear bill on ABA in the classroom

Feb 28, 2025, KLAS, Las Vegas: Parent-driven bill aims at providing additional ABA paraprofessionals at CCSD for students on spectrum

The Nevada Legislature will hear a parent-driven bill aimed at providing additional Applied Behavior Analysis paraprofessionals and other therapy support to students on the spectrum.

It’s been years of emotions for parents like Eve Eriksson. 

“My daughter was at the end of a dark tunnel, and I couldn’t communicate with her,” she shared with 8 News Now. 

After years of ABA therapy, every day her daughter Evelyn is making progress. She said her 7-year-old is autistic and nonverbal. 

“And with ABA and some of her other therapies it’s like my daughter is coming out of that tunnel,” Eriksson said. 

A tunnel Eriksson is coming out in support of ABA Therapy. . . .

Left with no choice, Eriksson, like many families in the Las Vegas valley, had to choose ABA therapy and take her daughter out of traditional school. She now homeschools her daughter where she also receives her necessary therapy. 

Eriksson is now advocating for the passage and implementation of Nevada Senate Bill 174. 

According to the bill, it would allow outside paraprofessionals to provide ABA and other therapy to students in Nevada. 

“This would give them the opportunity to actually go to the school and work with the children in class with educators,” Mike Lee said. “I have a 6-year-old child, he has autism, he’s non-speaking and nonverbal and so I do have a great amount of concern.”

Lee authored the bill in collaboration with Board Certified Behavior Analyst or BCBA Samantha Lemons. 

“We want to target behaviors where they’re occurring so if we have kids that are engaging in maladaptive behaviors in the school setting or they need support with their social-emotional, their communication in the school setting, we obviously want to push in there,” she said. 

BCBA’s like Lemons, work with people who have developmental issues. She also runs Little Lemons Therapy in Las Vegas. It provides in-home ABA therapy to children with autism. “We have some kiddos that need support in schools,  autism doesn’t stop,” said Lemons.

“ABA can work for everybody and everything.” 

Both Lemons and Lee shared an internal memo with 8 News Now Ozzy Mora sent by the Clark County School District in 2021 to its staff. It said, “Outside ABA therapists are not allowed to provide ongoing services to students during the school day.”

According to CCSD’s website, there’s an entire page devoted to ABA and student support resources. Sources tell 8 News Now the district had just recently updated its page.

8 News Now reached out to CCSD about SB 174 and additional questions about its paraprofessionals. After several attempts, the school district responded with a statement: 

CCSD continues to track SB 174 as part of the 2025 Nevada Legislative Session. District staff work with legislators to monitor changes made to the language in bill drafts. CCSD provides public comment on bills as appropriate throughout the process as the legislation progresses.

“I’m not the biggest advocate for ABA therapy,” Cash Colligan said. 

Colligan is a proud father of an autistic child and worries ABA therapy can be harmful.  

“There’s too much fear-mongering with autism to where parents try to get this methodology of fixing or normalizing,” he said. “You definitely have to fight and advocate for what you know is best for your child.”

He said all kids should be accepted for who they are. . . .

Many other parents reached out to 8 News Now Ozzy Mora to include their stories as part of their efforts to get SB 174 passed. Other people want to know where the money will come from exactly to pay for these additional paraprofessionals and how they will integrate into CCSD’s special education classroom. SB 174 outlines it should not be a fiscal burden to the school district. 

In Nevada, Medicaid does cover a certain amount of ABA Services for autism treatment. 

The first hearing for SB 174 was scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 26, but was pushed back to a later date.