They are part of a Rutgers program called Scarlet Hope for Autism: The Road to Excellence in Education (SHARE) in which the university partners with two of its host communities in New Brunswick and Newark to help those districts better serve their special-needs population.
Through funding from Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH), Rutgers speech-language pathology faculty and Newark school specialists have been working together since 2023 to improve how students are evaluated for speech and language disorders. The initiative aims to ensure children from linguistically diverse backgrounds receive appropriate support without being incorrectly labeled with a disability.