Re: New School right choice?

June 22, 2004

We had our daughter in a special ed school this past year and she really

flourished with all the sensory extras,picture symbols etc.If they provided for

grade 1 we would have continued but they don't.She will be in a regular school

but in a special ed class next year.I am a firm believer in integration but not

at all costs.Some of children will shut down in a regular class and will not

learn.I am hoping her new school will work.As parents we strive daily to provide

our kids what they need.As parents I believe we know what works for our kids.I

commend you for looking into alternatives. Lea

Wife to Rick

mommy to (autism)6yrs

(autism)4yrs

(autism)3yrs

(only asthma so far)2 yrs

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June 22, 2004

We had Hope in a special needs preschol class last year, and she'll be back

there this year. They have the classes set so the 3 year olds go 2 days a week

and once they turn 4, they go the full week. She was in a class where the kids

had a lot of behavioral, physical and cognative issues, and to me it seemed like

a big structured playgroup rather than a preschool. At the time we didnt know

she was autistic. She had been diagnosed with verbal apraxia, but no one

mentioned autism. The school suggested we move her over to the hearing imparied

class since it's very speech intensive. We did that and she took off. She

loved school and did really well in the class. Her teacher saw a few things

that were a little off and sugested we get further evaluations, and that's when

the autism diagnosis came up. Her hearing is fine, but she's staying in the

hearing imparied class because of all the extra work they do on speech and total

communication (speech, sign, pictures, writing)

The director sounded as if he would move her from the class now that she was

diagnosed with autism, even went as far as saying they " had to be careful with

that class " . but her teacher has had kids with autism in the class before and

has no problem with it. She said in her class Hope is attempting to say more

words, she's more willing to use other methods if she cant' make herself

understood, and she's keeping up or passing kids her age academically. If it

works, we're not messing with it.

Now when spring rolls around we'll have to do some serious work to see what

school she'll be going to. If her communication is still shaky at best, we'll

opt to bus her out to the same school district she's in now for hearing impaired

classes for the extra communication work. If she's doing pretty well, then

we'll opt to send her to an elemaentary school here in our district. She wont

be going to the elementary school that kids in this neighborhood are supposed to

attemd though. That school is the worst elementary school in the district and I

wont do it. Hope has a hard enough time getting her point across without

teachers who dont care and dont teach breathing down her neck. The school she

would go to has much better test scores, better teachers, and more of a variety

of special needs classes (the one close to home has one special ed classroom and

that's it). We've already discussed this with the school district since they're

helping coordinate her preschool and therapists with the Intermediate Unit, and

they're willing to bus her into a different neighborhood if that's what we want.

Ever since we got her diagnosis a few weeks ago, I've spent hours on the phone

with the IU, the school district she attends classes in, our school district,

the therapists, and her doctors just to get everything set up to get her the

help she needs without holding her back or changing too much. Some days I