Salisbury — Stanley County students travel to Rowan County for education at local child care centers.

Stanly Community College and Partners in Learning have entered into an agreement to earn a college-provided special education certificate that includes clinical experience in Rowan County.

Certificate programs prepare students to work with children with disabilities. Students gain face-to-face experience through Partners in Learning’s Applied Behavior Analysis Clinical Director. This course also prepares students to take the Enrolled Behavioral Technician exam.

ABA is a technique used as an early intervention for autism spectrum disorders. PIL recently launched its program and has already accumulated a waiting list several times the number of children it can serve. The nonprofit currently serves a small number of students and employs three behavioral technologists, along with clinical director Kelsey Huilien, a board-certified behavioral analyst. PIL is also considering hiring more technicians.

Norma Honeycutt, executive director of PIL, said the university had reached out to the nonprofit and knew it was launching an ABA program and that PIL was being respected. She said the partnership is not a significant source of funding for her PIL and only covers costs.

“It’s more important to provide strong, high-quality instruction to registered behavioral technologists,” Honeycutt said, adding that the program could also help nonprofits recruit. “We could teach them the right way and we might hire them, but they might choose to go somewhere else.”

PIL is also helping pay two employees to become board-certified analysts, Honeycutt said.

“We are kind of developing our own talent,” Honeycutt said.

The course will start in September.

Honeycutt said the number of children PIL can serve will expand when the nonprofit moves to a new facility next year. Recently, PIL was approved to bill his Medicaid and some insurance providers.

With 10 children per behavior analyst, PIL plans to keep the case load low and expand the program over time, Honeycutt said. A student who needs ABA will get the support he needs throughout the day, primarily in the classroom. Honeycutt said she hopes to eventually start offering in-home services. He did not have an ABA in Rowan County until PIL started the program and this year Compleat KiDZ moved to his third floor of the Salisbury Post building.