Visual art is an enriching part of educational curriculum and an individual's development (Malley & Silverstein, 2014), but public school curriculum is increasingly focusing on standardization, core subject curriculum, testing, and accountability measures leaving creative fields behind as merely an additive part of education or a resource (Hourigan, 2014). Arts education within a system focusing on these areas creates a one-size-fits-all curriculum (Wexler, 2014) for students rather than accounting for individual student learning needs. A differentiated system is needed to respond to varying learning styles and stages of development. With the rising number of students being diagnosed with autism (Zablotsky, Black, Maenner, Schieve, & Blumberg, 2015), this shift becomes especially important for a growing population of students who exhibit a wide array of academic, social, emotional, and behavioral learning needs. The integration of therapeutic visual arts into an education curriculum can account for these elements of a student's developmental and learning needs as well as the need for self and expressive exploration (Albert, 2010; Anderson, 1992; Bush, 1997; Henley, 2001). This dissertation outlines a Q Methodological study that examined perceptions from professionals in the fields of art therapy, art education, and special education around what programmatic features should be included in a classroom-based therapeutic visual art designed for school-aged students with autism. These perceptions were collected through a Q sort of 42 item Q set. The results of the Q sort were analyzed and interpreted. From the patterns and themes that emerged from this interpretation, I developed program recommendations and implications surrounding classroom-based therapeutic visual arts programs designed for students with autism in a large public school district in the southeastern United States. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]