Really? Thanks, I'll try to get in touch with her! You so need to pm tzoya! She knows al kinds of great stuff about education and advocacy!
Hi, my name is Elizabeth- I'm 16, I live on Long Island, NY, and I have an autistic sister named Simmie who is 20. I've noticed a lot through the years that she and her mentally disabled peers don't really get the same educational benefits that I do- for instance, the first school she went to was pulled out from under her by the district it was rented from. She had to go to a school shared with people who weren't just mentally disabled, but instable, and soon went from school to school as we tried to find the right one, having to travel all around the island while I go to a school five minutes away from my house. Meanwhile, the school she had originally gone to was being renovated and repaired and given to kids in my school district. Why is it that kids like me get improvements made in our schools while she can't even keep her school in the first place? Also, there aren't any textbooks for mentally disabled kids in the school programs she's tried, and none of the programs fit her right. Schools for the mentally disabled here just aren't given enough funds, and that's unfair, especially because long island has one of the highest autism rates. Also, the school Simmie goes to now- which took us a few tries to find- is going to be taken away from the children there in about a year and a half. She won't be going there anymore, but there are so many sweet children attending there and finding love though the teachers and doing so much with the few resources they're allowed- plays, gardens, field trips. It's not fair to take this away from them.
What this rant is leading up to is that in my English class, we have to do an argumentative research paper about an issue that's close to us. This one automatically came to mind, and now I need to find sources. Does anyone here have an experience and/or sources (books, articles, etc.) that could help me write and cite for this paper? Specifically pertaining to Long Island would be nice, but anything would be helpful and would be greatly appreciated. (Also it'd be appreciated if you could get me this information ASAP- the paper is due april 13th, this friday!)
Thank you so much!
Lizzy
I dont know if you can cite what people actually have said on here but you can ask what types of classes/ratios are set up for children with disabilities and see what people come back with. I know there is 6:1:1 ,12:1:1, 8:1:2 and Intergrated. And you can talk about how each class is not really made for a specific child, so basically children are just placed in the class that best meets where they are functioning even though they might be with children higher or lower functioning than them. And also when there is no appropriate placement then parents and districts must find alternate placements such as private schools, Bosces, DDI and at times homeschooling. Hope that helps.Hi... yes, I'm on Long Island and my son is your age. He is diagnosed with PDD-NOS, among other things. I have to agree that his education has been imperfect at best, but that's true EVERYWHERE. Life is imperfect with autism. I'd be happy to give you some advice, but my PM here isn't working, so email me at TZoya@aol.com