Well, I am in Florida, although not in central. I'm in north Florida. I can tell you that Florida is at the bottom of the barrel as far as education goes, and that is for just standard education..... compared to some other places the special education programs stink. Although there seem to be some areas that are better than others, so I've heard. It sounds like you need to move, regardless. No matter what state you live in, you will have to advocate for your boys at some point, it's just that you will definitely have to do it in Florida sooner rather than later.
I can tell you that I'm in the same boat as far as no support system and no family. It is rough. If I had the chance to move to the worst state in the country as far as education but have the support of my family I would do it in a heartbeat, and then I would just buckle down and start the fight. Hire an advocate, an attorney...whatever I needed to do. I know exactly how you feel. Autism can be a lonely even when you have family around who just doesn't quite get it, but at least you have somebody.... you know? But having nobody....NOBODY, not even someone to watch the kids while your husband is working his eighty hour week so you can run to get a haircut...now that sucks
This is probably my third post. I really need some help. I live in Central Jersey and have three small children. My twin 5 year old boys are both developmentally delayed, one diagnosed with autism. He is very hyperactive, but very bright also. My husband and I are pretty much on our own and work opposite shifts to be able to watch my 2 year old daughter. We have one relative in New Jersey who lives one hour to the south of us. She is my sister and she adores my kids. Problem is she has three young children of her own, works, and has a loaded schedule. I had a sister who lived in my town, but she has since moved to Seminole County, Florida. She has grown children, and they were a great help when they lived nearby. She has been hinting at wanting me to move near her, but all I hear are negatives about Florida. Is their anything positive in central Florida. Are Brevard and Seminole county really that bad for autistic children. I would love a great public school system.
My husband and I feel very overwhelmed and haven't had an hour to ourselves in about a year. The winter months can be especially difficult.
Thank you for your help.
Hi Diaz,
Welcome to the board, don't know about Florida. We have Florida residents who will respond to you later.
I was just wondering if there are agencies who can help you with respite or some other programs to give you a break from time to time while you are still in NJ. That might be worth looking into. I Know some parents from NJ who used to get some home health help. You should make calls and look into that. Goodluck to you whatever you choose to do.
Concernedpa.
Definetly read the threads here under "Autism Ed. Issues" and "State/Country Resources" before you make a decision. We are actually leaving Florida to move to NY. My best advice to you is to contact the local autism society where you want to move and talk to the parents there. They will give you the real deal on the school district situation, availability of therapy centers, doctors, etc., Also, call some therapy centers and ask them if they are accepting new patients. I've lived in Southwest Florida and Central FL and I'm not happy at all with our experiences. I wanted to get the medicaid waiver for my son to get more services for my son, but the waiting list is 3-5 years long, possibly longer now that they've cut the Agency's budget. Many children's/adults in home services were cut by this decision. My family is nice, but much too busy to help me in the way that a good agency or school district can. I know it gets lonely, but I would try to build up a support system in my local community. That's what I'm going to have to do. I don't have any specific info. on Seminole or Brevard, but like I said, make some calls and do your reasearch. I wish you the best! It's a big decision!Thanks for anwering so quickly. I'm hoping that more Florida residents respond, but so far I feel that I'm more sure than ever that I have to move. I am going to look into respite here in New Jersey for the time being, but I definitely need support on a regular basis from relatives. It's true JulieA, sometimes its better to move to the worst place and have the support of family nearby. With an autistic child you can't just pick up and go to the park or the mall. Tantrums happen and if you can't control three small children in a parking lot, it can be downright dangerous. Our days are spent at home. When my husband is not working we make a trip to the local mall, that is it. My sister who lives an hour away is usually transporting her own kids to soccer, dance, baseball and everything else. We usually visit when its been too long. I hope that anyone else who is grappling with a move reads this. Appreciate your families especially if you can leave one of your children with them at the drop of a hat. It helps alot. diaz,
Hi again. Here are some links from my own list. I've heard so many great things about NJ helping kids with autism. Maybe you can talk your sister into moving up there instead! :) Just a note on weather, it's pretty hot most of the year and we do get our tornados, hurricanes, and tropical storms. Many people prefer that over snow however.
http://www.cfaii.org http://www.ucf-card.org http://www.asgo.org http://www.fndfl.org http://www.geocities.com/arnfl/flagencies.html
Diaz, I live in Seminole County. Don't do it. We're trying to move to get our children out of here. It has been three years of unrelenting hell trying to access services. You'd be moving from one of the best state in the country two one of the three worst. It truly is disastrous.
I hate to be so negative, but we are going to sell our house at way less than what its worth just to get our kids out of here before any more harm is done.
If you want more specifics, email me at starmuser@aol.com and I'll answer any direct questions you have.
Traci
I often read these forums but you'll have to distinguish between who is just disgruntled and who is being intelligent.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/florida/
I lived in Tallahassee, FL before I moved to CO. FL did a really good job giving my daughter a full day of pre-k, therpies. FL gave her a wonderful IEP. Now we moved to CO, it's horrible here. CO, they removed hrs of funding and refused to give her a full day of K. I even asked to pay for it. Yet illgeals get a free day of K in CO.I think it's good that people point out there is a distinct difference between state and school district services. I have read new story after news story about the FL Medwaiver (run by Agency for Persons w/Disabilities) budget cuts and how it has affected people. I read that these cuts were done because of the corruption in the agency. People are angry because the innocent have suffered. For people with severly affected children, this is a disaster. For people like myself, hoping for home based ABA therapy, it's not going to happen any time soon. I think these programs should be on every state's priority list. Apart from that issue, I do believe that you might find a great school district anywhere that puts a lot of effort and funding into their SPED programs. You can usually find the budget on their website or in the local papers. To me one of the best ways to get info is to speak directly with parents of kids in your district's SPED and get their advice. You can usually do that through local parenting/support groups. What I've found is that some parents are perfectly satisfied with measly services so make sure you find out exactly what they're getting and HOW they got it. Their idea of good services may not be your idea of good. http://www.iput.org is a very informative website with a specific link to FL medwaiver Budget Cuts Q and A document. This is from April's Miami Herald explaining APD cuts :
http://www.miamiherald.com/418/story/92009.html
Oh boy, not such a good sell for
While I am still digesting my son’s dx (he goes into first grade this year0, I am relieved to find that the school board can and will make some special accommodations. I don’t know yet if they will be sufficient but I did connect with an advocate group who are committed to helping me and my son find the best and most suitable placement for him and if need be they will contact the county board of education and make demands on my behalf. They will be going into school to monitor my son’s progress and will make their own recommendations. If they feel his needs to be in cluster group they will make that happen and if they feel he needs an aide they will fight for one. I am so pleased I made the call to 211 (a referral service) who put me in contact with Family Network of Disabilities
My best advice to you is to do some research on you own. Check out the Florida Department of Education website. Find out what scores the local schools achieved http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/ click to review school report cards (btw – both Brevard and Seminole Ctys did score A’s this year). The link for ESE is http://www.fldoe.org/ese/ese-home.asp .
I love living in
Good luck!
I hope not to get BLASTED for this post, but you could not do ANYTHING to get me to move to Florida - there are a few states that stink all around IMO and Flordia is one of them!I agree that compared to some other states, FL is not the best place to live. However, aside from the lack of support from the State of Florida and our insurance (for therapies), we were fortuneate enough to have some very good ESE teachers and find other things that helped my kids. Our ESE teacher was great and we worked very closely with her in trying to create the best environment for our children. We worked as a team w/ the resources we were able to get. What I have found is that you MUST be an advocate for your child 24/7. He have to stay on top of the schools, teachers, therapies, etc to ensure that your child is receiving what he needs to improve. That means, if you don't see any improvement with a particular therapy w/in a month, then you need to find out why and what you can do to correct the situation (ie could mean replacing the therapist if the child is not responsive to him or her). Same goes for the teacher and school. If you notice some odd things going on, you discuss it w/ a teacher in a very non-confrontational way...but make sure everything is documented. If you get no answers or help, then you move up the chain of command until someone listens and responds.
Anyway, just wanted to throw that info out to you. We have been content w/ our teachers and schools, even after we lost the services from Early Steps (aka Birth 1-3).
HI! We live in Orlando. We are in Orange county. We do not like school district for ESE. From what I am hearing, other districts, like seminole county, may be a little better, but Florida is not known for great services in general.They stink! I'm sorry to be so blunt, but I'd hate for you to move here thinking you might get some good services and then discover something very different.
Hi I'm in Tampa. For us it has been an improvement, we come from Washington DC where you would think services would be great but were actually so bad every parent went through mediation and was told that would be the route by the EI therapists. The school provided practically nothing. Private therapy had waiting lists that stretched to a year. We were very stuck. And the school refused to call a child autistic unless they were very severely affected. So Tampa has been a great improvement for us. Insurance does cover some private therapies though so they are getting private OT and ST in additiion to what they get at school and will probably be starting ABA soon through private insurance. Private therapy is plentiful. I was not impressed with the therapies through the school. They got a lot of it on paper but not in reality, it wasn't followed through with, the 90 min of speech a week was more like 30 and it was a group setting. It took the OT 6 months to evaluate because the county pulled her to cover additional duties when someone went on maternity leave, then when I did get the evals it was obvious she copied Nikolas' for Andrew and didn't change everything, didn't finish, so she had Andrew doing things he never ever did. I liked the teacher until school was out and we started that private therapy and I discovered with Nikolas he was forced to do things like sit at a table and color, so he has regressed. Where before I had to problem getting him to do that the OT brought out the crayons and he started crying and went and hid in the corner. After 4 weeks he is getting over that trauma. The problem is they stick these kids in a class that is suppose to be moderate to high functioning and my kids are neither, she had a few weeks training to teach special ed, it was her first year, and she barely knew what autism was. She did all the wrong things although she didn't mean to and her heart was in the right place, but yes she did some damage to Nikolas. She punished him for stimming because it was vocal stimming and he was being loud. He did not understand what he was being punished for. She forced compliance which was the wrong thing to do. But they have finally been properly evaluated with the school psych, a behaviorilist, OT and ST. and next year they are going to a new school I have heard great things about. I think Florida will be a step down from New Jersey as far as services, but look around carefully, talk to other parents (it was actually other parents who told me to try everything to get into this new school they are going to next year, and the school psych who I love told me to get them in there and helped me do it) and I think you will be fine. I have not been impressed with the drs though, they were better in DC. But the boys have made incredible progress in the year we have been here and they are finally getting the services they should have been getting and weren't in. I would try to talk to parents if you can, and find out the best school and place to live. I would think Orlando would be pretty good, better than Tampa. But its the school and staff that is really important too. These 2 schools are a mile apart but one is so much better than the other its amazing.