J.,
I know LeMoyne school in Wrigleyville has a program for autism. I also have a friend in Indiana with a 7 yr old son. I pasted her response below, let me know if you'd like ker email address. Good luck!
Unless you have an outstanding school, they simply do not have the resources to provide enough therapy, much less any programs that can be carried over to home. Check insurance benefits for outpatient speech and/or OT because they can help you get started. ABA is a great way to help develop skills like eye contact, listening ears, specific skills. Notre Dame has a training session every January for a few hundred dollars. ROUTINE is key! A timer that shows exactly how much time to do something might help, and a schedule board is useful, too. Your schedule board can be a dry erase board on the fridge if he can read, or photos that stick to a piece of fabric with Velcro. To help him transition, let him cross off the item on the list, or take the picture off the schedule and drop it into a folder. They can be as specific as you want - for instance, to help him learn to go potty I had one for my son in the bathroom that had drawings of pants at the ankles, a garden hose, toilet paper, pants up, a bar of soap, and a towel. Now he gets by with the dry erase board and his morning schedule - wake up, kiss mom, go pee (which implies wash hands), get dressed, eat breakfast, play until 7:10 when we go for the bus. He get a charge out of crossing the "done" things off the list. Finally, join a support group. Meeting other parents will not only provide comfort but valuable insight. Even if you can't make it to a meeting, join some online support groups for parents of autistic kids. Good luck! Let me know if there is anything else I might have a comment on.
Laura