Adam is transitioning to middle school next year also. The summer school is at the elementary school and not the middle school for him also. However, they have Camp Middle School for spec ed kids a couple weeks before school starts. They go several days and walk through their schedule. Adam will be provided a map with highlighed routes. His locker will be next to the special ed room if he needs help between classes. He will also be excused from class several minutes prior to the other kids, so he won't be in the hallway when it is congested. And he has a pass to go to the resource room any time Perhaps you can get something like that written in.
I did ask for an aide at least for the first few months. I was told that no one in my district has every had a one on one aide. Also the only spec ed non mainstream classes they have are for very severly CD kids. And it is at a different high school. Adam wouldn't fit in there.
I have been stressing over this move. Middle school can be hard on NT kids. So how are our kids going to do. Everytime a parent tells me, "oh, their social lives just blossom, and there are so many activities and games for them and their friends, they are never home" I just have to walk away and cry.
We had our son's transition meeting last week (going to middle school), and we added some things to his IEP for his middle school schedule. We added that he go to mainstream Reading/Language Arts (just a small amount of time for that), and full inclusion with an aide for Health, Computer, PE and Art. Everyone went along with it, no problem, although the Sp. Ed. teacher from the middle school came, and it was obvious they haven't made much of an attempt to mainstream the other kids in her class very much. But everyone signed off on it. I was so relieved, as I had been stressing about that for over week beforehand.
WELL, today I got an email from his future special ed. teacher. It was a very nice email, but something she said really bothered me. She made it a point to mention that the first few days of school would be hectic, and that "when the students are ready to travel, they will travel, and that will come sooner for some students and later for others. SO, what she was trying to tell me is that SHE will decide when my son goes to his gen. ed. classes. Nope, that's not going to happen. I immediately emailed her back, and while I tried my best to be cordial and pleasant, I made it know that it was absolutely unacceptable for my son to not go to his gen. ed. classes from day one, for the number of minutes per day as specified in his IEP. I don't want to start off on the wrong foot with her, but, she will follow the IEP or we will be speaking up about it. Loudly, if necessary.
The best thing you can do for your son's transition is to send him to summer school. He will be attending at the middle school, and it will give him a chance to get used to the school with a fraction of the regular students in attendance. It will also give the special ed teacher the opportunity to get to know your son without the rigors of the regular school year schedule. Yes, you want her to adhere to the IEP, but you also don't want to throw your son into the water when you don't know if he can swim yet, so to speak. Middle school is different. Very different, on both academic and social levels. Summer school attendance is a good way to meet in the middle, so you don't get off to a bad start with your closest ally, and it provides a comfortable way for your son to transition into the sometimes trecherous waters of middle school.Unfortunately, the ESY program will not have his middle school teacher, and it may not even be at a middle school (much less the middle school he will attend). They don't have all the details to me yet (which is shocking, since it starts in mid-June).Push back to find out all you can about ESY. If it is not going to be at his middle school, then everything I said does not apply
Editing to add, does your son have a TSA (aide)? It's extremely helpful if they have an aide when they make the transition to middle school. My son is in the 7th grade and has had an aide since 3rd grade. He is 100% mainstreamed, including some honors classes, but he will have an aide all they way through high school, to make sure he is organized and help breakdown the work into managable portions.
Well you have excellent taste in employers! :D
Edited to add: My son has always had an aide/para when he's been in the gen. ed. classes. And they will provide one for him in middle school. He has to have one...he needs lots of redirection.
Adamsmom, I understand how you feel...but if it makes you feel any better, middle is not a picnic for NT kids either. My DD is finishing up middle school this year. Granted, we moved here mid-semester, so that didn't help, but her MS experience was definitely not about her social life blossoming, tons of activities and games, and she was ALWAYS home (usually studying). But I do understand....I cry all the time because my son doesn't have an *real* friends. He's been invited to ONE birthday party his entire life. :/
But I have to say that "Camp Middle School" is a GREAT idea! I wish my district would do something like that! Wow!
Adam is the same way. Actually Adam and Karen's son Conner are alot alike. Conner does have a few school friends now though. Adam was invited to two parties. So I guess twice as many.
Adam has never had a friend. We used to car pool with a girl when he was in 1st-3rd grade at a private school, and he called her his friend. They actually used to talk in the van on the way home. That was the first and last person his age he talked to. They never did anything outside of school, but he was invited to her b-day party.
Oh, how I completely understand! My son has been invited to a couple of birthday parties, which at first he wants to go and then changes his mind because he says they aren't his friends anymore.
Thank you all for such great advice...and I do have to stress that having an advocate in your IEP meetings is a very good idea. My advocate was wonderful.