Children With Autism Miss Out as School Districts Make Their Own Rules Two New Jersey towns, Rutherford and Secaucus, are five miles apart. Students with autism in Rutherford have gotten far more in-person instruction. Eric Alarcon, 3, with his father, Reuben, and mother, Estafania, at home in Secaucus, N.J., where opportunities for classroom instruction have been rare.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times April 28, 2021Updated 7:11 a.m. ET Eric Alarcon, who will be 4 next month, has autism. He can say a few words and identify a variety of dinosaurs. He lives with his parents in Secaucus, N.J., a 10-mile drive from Midtown Manhattan.