By law, your child must start the new school year with an IEP. The legal standard is a Free Appropriate Public Education. If he has been successful in the mainstream in the past, that is probably heavily influenced by the fact that your mainstream classes have included only 18 kids in the past. That is very unusual. Most mainstream classes in public school have at least 25 kids. Sometimes close to 30. Regular ed class sizes have no cap unless your state requires a cap. Go to your state ed dept. for guidance on this. But I seriously doubt your district would break the law on caps on class size in mainstream classes. Self-contained special education classes, including resource room classes, do have caps. YOu can find those numbers out by researching the contiuum of services in your state's spec. ed. regulations. Most states have 15 kids as a cap in the largest self-contained classes.
When did this situation arise? If it occurred in enough time before the end of the school year, I would have asked to see the self-contained classes in session to observe whether or not any might be suitable for your son. I know it's too late now, but I mention this to highlight the fact that it's important to be proactive. Others who might find themselves wondering about placement in the future should start thinking about placement for the next year by February. I know that, back in February, you probably didn't know this was coming. However, for anyone who has an inkling that they might want to change placement in the next IEP, it's imperative to request visits to all possible placement options while those classes are still in session. And as close to the middle of the year as possible, because all classrooms change in the way they function by June, in anticipation of the end of the year (prepping for exams, going on field trips, spring fever, etc.)
During the summer, ask around about options other people have been using for their children in your Distrct. Ask parents of kids in self-contained classes what those placements are like. Try to network. Also, your child might be able to stay in a large class if he gets lots of resource room. In our state, resource room is capped at 5 kids per period and a student can spend up to half his day in resource room. You are completely correct that a child with ASD won't be able to function properly in a class of 40 kids. In fact, none of those kids will be able to function properly in such a large class. I gather that the voters in your District have rejected the coming year's budget and that your DIstrict is on austerity. My guess is that the District is using scare tactics about possible class size to try to get the voters to pass the budget in another vote. Since your District is STILL going to be responsible for showing Annual Yearly Progress under NCLB, I seriously doubt they will go to such large classes. If that happens, it's predictable that the general ed kids will not pass NCLB testing and your District will have the State all over them. They won't want this. So the dire predictions on class size may be overblown. I hope so. Evenso, the class size is likely to get larger than 18. Most kids who are mainstreamed can deal with up to 30 kids in a class. If your child cannot, you may need to consider having him put in a self-contained class for at least part of the day. Or having his IEP Team approve lots of Resource Room. Other things to include in this new IEP would be more sensory integration therapy, counseling to deal with the increased stress, a way for your son to ask for a break, an FM system to block out extraneous noise while allowing him to process what the teacher says, preferential seating. Good luck.
Hello all...I am new here. My ds is 8 years old. He is a High Functioning Hyperlexic child. He will be going into the 4th grade in September. The town we live in has fallen into financial hardship, because of this, they can not tell me where he will be placed. I have rejected the placement portion of his IEP. The SPED director has even mentioned that they may move the 4th and 5th graders to the middle school and that the class sizes might be 35 to 40 children with 1 teacher in REGULAR ED ( my ds is in REG ED with assistance of a paraprofessional). My ds has made tremendous achievements thus far with being mainstreamed, he is in regular ed only. My question is... Is this even legal? Can a town place my child in a class with 35 to 40 children with assistance? (He has never been in a class with more than 18 children) Talk about sending him into sensory overload...this will be tramatic if not devestating to him!! This is the worst transition nightmare ever. My ds is perseverating on the fact that I have have no answers for him......WHO is my teacher going to be? WHERE am I going to school in September? WHEN do I have to go to school? (if they are moved to the middle school, it starts 1 hour earlier) WHAT is my class room number? Finally, WHY do you not know any of these answers "MOM"!! This is going to be the longest summer of my life....Any HELP would be greatly appreciated!! The only thing that I do know is that the SPED director said we will have an emergency TEAM meeting the week before school, to figure out my ds's placement. I could just "CRY"!!!!!