I recently found out that there are talks of building an autism school (public) in my area and that my alderman was in on this. I sent her an email telling her I'd heard this and, if true, would like to know how to support this. She e-mailed today telling me that there are talks of expanding the school Anthony is currently attending (which is just a pre-school) to K - possibly High School. Anthony's current school is not just for kids on the spectrum but they have more knowledge (of ASD) than most other schools in the Chicago Public School system. Actually, the majority of kids are NT. There is only one self contained room in the school the rest of the rooms are blended (about 12 NT kids and 5 or 6 that have IEPs for various reasons). The teachers get more training and this school gets money from different sources because they work in conjunction with a local university. She went on to say that when the time comes she will contact me and other parents for their input.
So, while she did give me some information she didn't give me any information on how to support this effort. I sent her an email back thanking her for the response and reiterating the fact that I would like to help if there were community meetings to attend, envelopes to be stuffed, support letters to be written etc. I also told her I'm a quick typist and can take shorthand - if any of that could be helpful.
Is there anyone else I should contact about this? Any ideas on how I could get more information?
Thanks for reading this long post.
I am not sure who to contact, but I just came across an interesting article about a specialty school in WI for disabled children. The disability rights center is suing to halt building a new school saying that it does not provide the students with the least restrictive environment.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=478059
Thanks for the link. I've printed it and I'm going to file it away, just in case. My hope is that the school will remain the way it is now, mostly for general education kids with better supports for special ed kids.