SHANGHAI Cao Peng Music Center, an organization which has been running a popular weekly music education salon involving autistic children for seven years, plans to open a school for autistic children in the city.

The center has set up an education fund under Cao Xiaoxia, who is the executive director of the Shanghai City Symphony Orchestra, and the daughter of Cao Peng, a well-known symphony conductor in China.

Autistic children either go to schools with normal children or to schools with mentally challenged children. Parents and educators have said for years that autistic children do not get enough attention in schools and are more prone to being left jobless.