Re: Special School vs. Inclusion question

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I have a 13 year old son who spends half his day in mainstream and the other

half in an inclusive setting. This is the first year for him in the inclusive

setting and he loves it. He gets the best of both worlds, gets to be with his

friends because he has lunch in the mainstream and then goes off to his

inclusive room where he can do his work at his own pace. He calls it the happy

corner so you can see how he feels about it. Maybe the new school has something

similar for your son to try. Just a thought.

Joan

on <cathrob@...> wrote:

I'm so glad this group exists. I just realized I could ask this group the

question my husband and I are struggling with.

We're moving to Washington D.C. for a year or more. Currently, in Ohio, our 7

yr old AS son is in an inclusion program with a decent resource room and an

aide, and they love him, and he's happy, and has stopped acting out, though he

really is making very little progress with social skills and sensory integration

issues (regulating his body). He really needs extra help with both things.

The services in D.C. are not good, but we have a good lawyer who can at least

get us a decent aide, maybe even an ABA-trained one, and there is one school

with a forward-thinking principal who is trying to improve his school's

services.

The other option is a special new AS program opening this year in a school

outside D.C., 30 min. from where we'll live (so no neighborhood friends, long

bus ride). It will have 8 kids in a 3rd-4th combination class (our son will be

in 2nd but he's tall and he's advanced so they may take him), and an excellent

staff. This program is attached to a school with a long history of serving much

more impaired kids K-12.

We want the staff and the program, and have raised money from our family to

fund one year of it. But we are worried that 1) he's doing fine in inclusion,

and this program is for kids who aren't, 2) we won't be able to afford more than

a year if the district doesn't fund it, 2) the context of extreme disability

(our son is sensitive to being a " misfit, " a term which he immediately picked up

from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,-- the kids in the hallways of this school

are visibly impaired), and 3) we are also worried about the paucity of peers he

can learn from. There will be no girls in this program.

His current staff think he's doing well in the mainstream setting, which we've

fought hard to keep him in.

My question is this: does anyone have an AS kid in a special school who looks

around him and says -- oh, I can't fit into the world so I ahev to be here?

Does anyone have a kid in a special school who had the same worries and found

they were unfounded?

I would really love some anecdotal wisdom here. Our son could use some

intensive intervention, but I want him to rejoin the mainstream as soon as he

can.

R.

[Guest guest]

,

What's the target population of the school? If it's ADHD, Tourette's,

etc., I'd be tempted to go ahead. If iti's retardation and more

serious diagnoses, I'd be tempted to rethink it. AS kids need

typical peers to hang out with and to model social behavior for

them. JUST my two cents.

Liz

On May 18, 2006, at 9:01 AM, on wrote:

> I'm so glad this group exists. I just realized I could ask this

> group the question my husband and I are struggling with.

>

> We're moving to Washington D.C. for a year or more. Currently,

> in Ohio, our 7 yr old AS son is in an inclusion program with a

> decent resource room and an aide, and they love him, and he's

> happy, and has stopped acting out, though he really is making very

> little progress with social skills and sensory integration issues

> (regulating his body). He really needs extra help with both things.

>

> The services in D.C. are not good, but we have a good lawyer who

> can at least get us a decent aide, maybe even an ABA-trained one,

> and there is one school with a forward-thinking principal who is

> trying to improve his school's services.

>

> The other option is a special new AS program opening this year in

> a school outside D.C., 30 min. from where we'll live (so no

> neighborhood friends, long bus ride). It will have 8 kids in a

> 3rd-4th combination class (our son will be in 2nd but he's tall and

> he's advanced so they may take him), and an excellent staff. This

> program is attached to a school with a long history of serving much

> more impaired kids K-12.

>

> We want the staff and the program, and have raised money from our

> family to fund one year of it. But we are worried that 1) he's

> doing fine in inclusion, and this program is for kids who aren't,

> 2) we won't be able to afford more than a year if the district

> doesn't fund it, 2) the context of extreme disability (our son is

> sensitive to being a " misfit, " a term which he immediately picked

> up from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,-- the kids in the hallways

> of this school are visibly impaired), and 3) we are also worried

> about the paucity of peers he can learn from. There will be no

> girls in this program.

>

> His current staff think he's doing well in the mainstream

> setting, which we've fought hard to keep him in.

>

> My question is this: does anyone have an AS kid in a special

> school who looks around him and says -- oh, I can't fit into the

> world so I ahev to be here? Does anyone have a kid in a special

> school who had the same worries and found they were unfounded?

>

> I would really love some anecdotal wisdom here. Our son could

> use some intensive intervention, but I want him to rejoin the

> mainstream as soon as he can.

>

> R.

>

>

>