that is one of the general misconceptions about autism is that it only affects children. you don t outgrow autism? you do not outgrow autism. look, we re gonna play catch! reporter: the clock is ticking on nicholas kubicsko s services too. the long island teenager has just months left before he turns 21 and loses access to resources his mother says have changed his, and her, life. i never gave up on nick. i always knew that there was more to him. i knew that he was in there. i knew he was trying and when we supported him at home. i kept getting glimpses. i knew where that young man was. reporter: finding a way to reach nick has been a challenge. he used to live in a 24 hour residential treatment center. but lenore says the staff had trouble with nick s obsessive behavior. it was torture for him to have someone try to intervene and rush him or prevent him from doing something. and what did that lead to? initially protesting. and it eventually evolved into him becomin
worker. and lenore can t find one. ok. when you re ready. reporter: lenore has taken nick for interviews at a number of agencies that provide social workers. but none of them have agreed to take his case. to raise an autistic child you almost, you can t you can t do it without the help. and right now um, i don t know how we re gonna do it. i don t know what kinda life he s gonna have because we re looking at a really barren landscape for him. i don t think i ve ever been more terrified than i am right now. reporter: autism advocate linda walder says government programs aren t designed for adults with autism. the problem is, is that system is really broken. it s dated. it s not addressing the needs of adults and the growing population of adults living with autism. reporter: it s not addressing
is not a good idea for him. reporter: eric has been a student at the rebecca school for the past five years. it s a private school dedicated to providing specialized support like speech and occupational therapy to children with developmental disabilities. it s a place where he s understood and he s cared about. he loves the teachers. he s very, very attached to them. the rebecca school is like a family to him. reporter: it s expensive too, $100,000 a year. after some costly legal wrangling, eric s parents got the public school district to pick up the tab. that s because federal law says states are obligated to educate children through high school. for those with special needs, that usually means up to age 21. ready, set go! without purposeful things to do, he will fall back into the autism world, into his own inner world. he s so much happier out of it. but that s where his brain takes him. it s hard. i really need these people and i
can t have them anymore. reporter: as an adult, eric will be eligible for social security. and he ll be able to apply for services funded by medicaid. but his parents have been warned that those programs will not be tailored to autism or build on the skills eric has mastered at the rebecca school. we just can t cut off educating and teaching and supporting people when they age out of their school program. reporter: linda walder is the executive director of the daniel jordan fiddle foundation a non profit think-tank devoted to studying the issues around adults with autism. because autism prevalence rates have more than doubled over the last decade, she says an estimated half a million young people with autism will age out in the next ten years. and it s a tsunami of children who are aging to adult life. do you stop having autism when you turn 21?
the reality we have now. it s not addressing today s reality. reporter: without appropriate jobs or housing adults with autism have higher rates of unemployment than individuals with other disabilities. you don t feel like you can do it this morning? reporter: and 80 percent under age 30 live at home which is what eric is doing now that he s turned 21 and aged out of the rebecca school where he had constant support. reporter: does 21 seem arbitrary to you? for these kids, it s terribly arbitrary. i understand that the state has to have some limits. they can t support people forever. but this is no solution. reporter: mary wonders if all the money spent educating eric will have been a waste if she can t find something productive for him to do now. this is what eric s day is like since aging out, little structure hanging around the apartment with nothing to do and nowhere to go. suddenly it hit us that we re into the rest of our lives. and that s been a big change and a f