Hi,
I live in Sicklerville, Camden County. The school district is Winslow Township. For my older son who is 3.5 they send him to an out of district private school that offers an ABA classroom. The classroom is full day and in addition to his regular st, ot, and pt the st is in the classroom two full days a week and the ot another full day.He also received after school services 4.5 hours per week of discrete trial.
They do have four in district classrooms, an autism class, a 3 year old preschool disables, a 4 year old preschool disabled, and a typical 4 year old classroom. They were switching to a new ABA program and didnt want our son in an "experimental" classroom. Plus they would not work on feeding issues or teeth brushing.
I love the school he is in now. It is Gloucester County Special Services in Turnersville. They are building them a huge new school that is supposed to be ready for the Sept school year. It will even have classrooms set up like apartments to teach our children how to live on their own. The new school is in Deptford. Gabriel is making great progress and I can see it every day.
The tuition for the school including busing is over ,000. They were paying the ABA instructor .00 per hour and the BCBA consultant .00 per hour. Not sure what they are paying now.
The district was pretty flexible although we did have to take them to court to get his after school services started. After four months of hearing they could not find someone we finally filed.
Early Intervention here is great for both my older son before he was three and now for my younger sons. We have excellant therapists who are making great progress with them.
Please let me know if you need any more info. We were considering moving to Cherry Hill but it is very expensive. There is also a great school in Washington Township in Gloucester County.
Littlemama..thanks for your response. Hopefully you will get better services than we have here in Jax. Are you sure a 253 score is 21,000. I was told he highest score you can get is 255 and that was 21,000 which is the max amount. I have looked into using the Mckay scholarship but the schools are so expensive I would have to pay out of pocket about 20,000.
What part of NJ did you move from? were you happy with the services there?
Little Mama,
My friend lives in Oviedo, FL right outside Orlando just curious if that's where you moved to.
Hi Ryan's Mom,
I forgot to log out when I left the computer, so please know I wasn't ignoring you. ;o)
We moved from Cherry Hill a little more than a week ago. I really can't speak for the elementary school level, as my son is not yet 3, so we were dealing with EI. I will tell you that compared to some it was good, compared to others it was not-so-good, and what I did end up with wasn't just handed over - it took a little fighting. However, I do know that their preschool program is supposed to be outstanding, largely because of the options available. Cherry Hill is a large district w/ a lot of money (not that this applies to us
I will try to contact someone I know who is familiar with services and school options in Jacksonville and get back to you. It may not provide anything you don't already know, but maybe we'll get lucky!
I'm not sure what you were referring to when you mentioned scores? Sorry.
Sorry for the delay in resonding! I had to go to a client site for most of the day and just got back to my home office. I live in Camden County, the town is Merchantville.
ryan's mom - have you tried for the McKay scholarship, and if so, is that (K) the number you were given??
Also, if you don't mind, can you give me some insight into what you're looking for in terms of services for your son that your present school district doesn't offer?
I am an "insane" mom who just moved FROM NJ to FL (Orlando area) to be closer to family, and I'm determined to make it work here, somehow!
My kids live in Union County, actually Westfield. I understand they just put more money into the budget for the autistic children. The program in Westfield is fantastic. The taxes are high though.[QUOTE=derocas]Little Mama,
My friend lives in Oviedo, FL right outside Orlando just curious if that's where you moved to.
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Hi derocas,
We're actually on the other side of town -- Oviedo is NE and we're NW of Orlando.
My mother lives in South Jersey. Real estate taxes are high. Up until recently I would have considered NJ one of the best states to live in for a family with autism. Now I'm not as certain. Last year there were dramatic state budget cuts and it is getting harder to get services. Early Intervention cuts were fought by NJ citizens recently. This is based on my MOM, my own research, and my interest in moving back there to be near family. I still think, however, that NJ is in the upper 1/4 of the states.I live in new jersey.. I am happy with the schools here.. My son is young only 31/2 and this is his frist year there.. But i can not complain.. He gets all the services i asked for.. Speech and PT are what he gets now.. We are in the process of getting a behavior spec. to come to my house and evalute him.. They do do the summer program here in burlington township.. I pay nothing for his eduaction the state i am for sure pays for that.. I do not know how much per child they get.. I also heard some parents complain about certain schools.. but like mom2 peter said it is all where you go.. Hope you find the right one for your son.. I am looking to live in or close to cherry hill?Cherry Hill is very nice.. Areas around there are morrestown. marlton, burlington township, columbus, they are all very nice.. And in burlington township the house's are not too expensive around 300,00to 400,00 and the taxes are not bad 5000 Hope all goes well..I live in New Jersey, Camden County, my son goes to school in Burlington County. My son will be 7 in June and is in an ABA full day program at a public school.
We get great services, we live in such a tiny district that I get to choose where my son goes to school. I pay nothing for his education. And yes they have an extended school year. After the regular school year ends, he goes back after about a 10 day break for the 6 week extended program, shorter hours though.
I have a Behaviorist that comes to the house on weekends that the district pays for too. I have gotten whatever I have asked for. It is a great district to be in.
However I have talked to other Jersey parents that are fighting to get what they want and are not happy, it all depends on where you are.
what kinds of things does the behaviorist work on with your child at your house?Alot of what she does is reinforcing the stuff he learns in school that in addition to Social skills and life skills stuff. We really don't need her for "behavior" issues at this point. She is awesome and I still want her to come and work with my son, at this point it's 2 hours of school work.
My son is in a weekend social skills class which is games and things like that.
I used to live in Cherry Hill, it's very nice there. The district is huge a two years ago the Special Ed buget was cut drastically to benefit the Sports programs. They closed to elementary Autism programs and combined them with 2 other Cherry Hill elementary schools. I know Moms there that are satisfied and I know Moms that have to fight for everything. The bigger the district the harder it is to get more of what you want/need. They (Cherry Hill) have a great preschool inclusion program that Moms rave about. Your son may not fit the school program and may need to go out of district, Kingsway is really good and I believe in Cherry Hill or the surrounding area.
I live in Merchantville, same county as Cherry Hill, about 5-10 minutes away.
Our area also has alot of wonderful support programs and activities for parents and kids.
NJ taxes can be very high keep that in mind, we pay of 9,000 a year in property taxes!
My son is 9 1/2 my son's school district pays ,000 for his tuition. That's Sept-June. He attends a school outside our district. Our "home" district did not have the services he needs so I chose a place that I felt would address his needs. We live in Monmouth County and his school is in Mercer County. It's a public school for children with behavioral issues due to Bipolar, ADHD, and AS. It's a public school because it's publically funded. All the teachers are NJ state certified Teachers of the Handicapped. His class can go up to 8 but currently have 7 students 1 teacher and 1 aide. The school district also pays to transport him and to provide him with an aide on his ride to school. They also pay for the extended school year which is not included in his tuition. They also would have paid for a 1-1 aide but the school he was entering wanted to try to go without one to see if he could handle it. (He's doing really well without one) This is my son's second out of district school. The one that he was in before this one cost the district ,000/year plus ,000 for a one-on-one aide. (That amount didn't include transportation and the extended school year.)
In our case we could have chosen a more expensive "private" school. We had one as a second choice and that one cost ,000/year (not including the extended year) but we fell in love with the school that my son currently attends. I really don't know what our "home" district spends on special needs students that stay in district.
It saddens me to see restrictions like that.
My husband took a graduate class in budgeting for administrators and I'm almost sure that after a districts spends ,000 the state reimburses them.(Which is one reason our taxes are so high)
As far as what part of NJ is better then others it really depends. My son's classmate lives in Rocky Hill, NJ and would attend Montgomery schools. They are really highly rated as far as regular ed goes. I think they are in the top 10 in the state. They didn't have the services that the child needed and the parents spent ,000 hiring an attorney to get their child into the school that he currently attends.
I am hearing alot of great things about services in NJ. We are looking to move out of FL do to terrible services here.
Does anyone that lives there know about how much they spend per year on your child's education? are there services in the summer? Last question sorry...is there one county that is better than another?
Thank youBUMPMom2peter..which town do you live in?John is right about that. We live in a small suburban town. K-8 has maybe 300 kids. All kids with special needs get sent out of district and their sppecial ed budget is huge. We get great services! And we live in a great town!I live in Northern Nj and have been happy with the services. I do know that the larger the school district the harder it is to get all the benifits. Only bc there are more children looking for them. The smaller the town the better the services. [QUOTE=LittleMama]
I am an "insane" mom who just moved FROM NJ to FL (Orlando area) to be closer to family, and I'm determined to make it work here, somehow!
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Hi, I am insane too, but for a different reason. I really thought because it was cheaper to live here, it made it more affordable to be a SAHM for my kids, and be there afterschool. While I tried to do my homework, I was just told to get here and we'll go from there. It should have been the biggest red flag in existence. I am so sorry I moved here, but on the other hand...I had a lot of time to regroup and collect my thoughts. It isn't a bad place per say, I'd love to retire here. LOL! We had financial reasons for moving here..... I was determined to make it work too, but it isn't.....I mean the school part is good, well this year, who knows what next year will bring, not sure about Orlando...I'm in a small town about 1/2 hour out of Daytona...but everything else just sucks. I was thinking of Jersey too.
I think these Gals/guys just sold me....now where in Jersey is the question, LOL. :-)
I can't convince the dh to move north again - won't happen. We live in FL now - we moved from Columbus, Ohio a 5 years ago. We live about 45 minutes north of West Palm Beach. We are new to the forum and planning a move to South Jersey this summer
I actually started writing bec I have heard that NJ does have one of the best thgerapy/treatment options in the country and a great deal of special prgs.... are there any helpful websites to refer to??
thanks, Rita