I am wanting to move in the next year i love the west north west any body know of a good place to raise autistic kids??
The consensus on this board seems to be that NY state, NJ, a few New England states (CT, MA) seem to do a good job. NY, in particular, has autism specific special education laws that ensure a relatively high level of services for kids with the label. CA also seems to have a good reputation.
The specific school district, I think, has more to do with the quality and quantity of services, though, and there are good and bad school districts in every state. Following the taxes probably isn't a bad idea.
I would probably look to NY or one of the New England states if I was in a position to move.
Hi, I live in Pennsylvania, Not the northwest but I'm finding it a great place to raise my children.
In our state there is an Autism task force started by the state government, providing support to families dealing with autism. Last year there was also a Mini grant 0 given to 800 families who have children with autism. The grant was for the purpose of modfication of your home to help keep your kids safe, eg, security system, radar fencing and such. I was sorry i missed the deadline for that one but It shows promise for the future of the state i live in.
Best of luck to you NJ has one of the best Autistic programs for children. Thats what I hear anyway !
When you do decide on a state, go to that state's Autism Society website or call them. They should have a list of support groups in the state. I would talk to the facilitators of each support group and get an idea of what services are like in the area. I did this and it really helped! I got pretty overwhelmed though as I got so many mixed responses. Here's how we ended up choosing our town - I had several support group leaders send out an e-mail from me detailing what we were looking for and asking for responses from parents. They could just answer briefly - like is their school district good or bad - or they could go into detail.
One woman e-mailed me back and told me she rather liked our town and we should check it out. She also gave me a phone number of another mom who had a child with autism. I talked to 2 or 3 moms in this town and none of them had ANYTHING bad to say about the school. All the other districts I was getting tons of mixed signals about - some really liked them, others didn't at all.
Then we toured the school. The principal is awesome and is a former autism teacher. Both my ds and dd were skipping along with her while we toured the school and I could tell my ds felt comfortable there. We also loved the small town (it's about 5,000 people here) feel and the fact that people are so friendly.
We also got a great deal on our house as well since we are further out in the suburbs. It only adds 10 minutes (if that!) to my dh's commute - totalling about 25-30 minutes one-way. Not bad!
It is hard to move and even harder to find a school district when you don't know anyone there. But parents are usually the best judge. You obviously have to watch out for those who have a specific vendetta against a school district (but there is usually a decent reason why this is) and try to gauge what people are saying. Many people who DID NOT LIVE in this town told me they hadn't heard good things about it - but they got a new principal here 4 years ago and she made MAJOR (positive!) changes. So, people were going on old information. But everyone who LIVED HERE had really good things to say. I was amazed that people 10 miles away had no idea how good the district is!
Good luck to you - hope this helps even a little bit!
Here are some sites that can help you in your quest to find out more inforamtion about possible states. www.city-data.com/forum under search of whatever state or city that you are interested in just type in Autism.
Another one is www.zipskinny.com which gives a lot of statistics about housing prices and median income etc in cities all across the U.S
Hope these help!
which town is that exactly?