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My 18yo (who will be in school for three years after this school year) left the special school has been attending and entered our local HS this week. I can't believe I didn't push for this sooner. I've gotten calls from teachers who are SO enthusiastic. And they appear to genuinely love him and appreciate his personality. HE is totally walking on air. Some of the teachers are seeking me out to see if we can get him more involved in the activities for typical students. He's already gotten an invitation from a classmate to visit over the Spring Break. I spent an hour on the phone with one of the teachers who was really, really interested in everything about him. He's in a self contained mixed disabilities class but they seem to be integrated pretty well into the larger school. I sure hope this great start continues but I have no reason to think it won't. It took us all these years to find the right placement for him and it turns out to be in his own backyard. All I have to say is don't give up. Kids change, schools change. Keep striving for a place where your child can be the best HIM or HERs/he can be.Great News for your son and for you. In our sons case, the best place is our local school. It is the closest one in our township to our home. our neighborhood is not populated with many families with school aged children, but he has met local kids at the bus stop. He qualifies for a special bus to pick him up here at our home, but we elected to have him ride the bus with all of the other kids that gather at the end of our road. Our school district's Autism Support Center is based at this location and he receives the lowest level of support and is doing a lot for himself. His grades are Straight A's and he is doing nicely with getting along with his fellow students. We force him to try new things, to mixed results and usually with a lot of protesting on his part, but once he tries something and really doesn't like it, then we ask him to tell us why he doesn't like it before we let him quit. Our latest thing is Little League Baseball. His first practice is tomorrow. He was miserable at the draft, so he did nothing that was asked of him. But his coach knew him from last year, our sons played on the same Tee Ball team from the Y, and they belong to the same swim club as we do. I am glad that You are experiencing positive results Tzoya, after all of the help that you have given us, It's nice to hear that Your son is doing good.toyza, this is great news, I hope your DS makes lots of new friends as he prepares for adult life.Great news. I am very much for integration not just because it benefits our kids education but maybe even more so because it gets the NT world ready for our kids. I am so happy that this is working well for everyone!My son was in the local SD from k thru 7. In the MS, the teachers were very, very poorly trained in autism (even with the presence of an autism consultant on staff and a sympathetic principal in place). The staff SO misunderstood our son and SO instigated him that he had a HUGE meltdown and was suspended. I decided I needed to take him out of a more integrated setting and put him somewhere where the people were highly trained to handle behavioral issues. He improved and was back to himself pretty quickly in that sort of setting. Problem was, I no longer trusted the local schools to manage him properly. Fast forward 4 years. During this time, he has bounced around to a few different county-run schools. They are excellent in their own way, but because of IDEA 2004 forcing school districts to keep kids more integrated, the population in these schools has changed and my son has really not been in a group of true peers. It was the DISRICT who invited him back. I was waiting until that happened because I knew from bitter experience what can happen when a student is not truly wanted in a particular placement. That is why I am SO impressed with our experience this week. The attitude at our local schools has changed, night and day, in only a few years. Now the environment is very, very welcoming and I have high hopes for our son and for other families in our district. I've seen this happen recently in other districts nearby. Integration is a lovely idea on paper, but if the human beings in charge of implementing integration don't want it to work, it won't. Glad to see that our local community has changed its attitude so much in such a short time. wish it had happened earlier. That's wonderful to hear! Awesome news! Great news! Sounds like your son is doing great. You've worked SO hard and you must be SO proud. Congratulations!Tzoya how GREAT! Please keep us up on progress reports -- this is so cool!Tzoya, I am so happy for you and Jamie. I hope he does well in his new school and really learns alot of life skills at well as academics. How nice for you and him to be so enthusiastic about his placement. Great news Tzoya!! Tiffany That's excellent news. I agree 100% with what you say about inclusion being great on paper, but totally dependent on the school's culture. The junior high here in my town doesn't want kids who are different, and I know of two mothers of Asperger kids who fought for accommodations the full three years their sons were there, with no improvement in their situation whatsoever. I hope something changes there in the next few years, so my oldest son will at least have the option of going there. Middle School should be outlawed worldwide! A few decades ago, someone got the idea to corral all the hormone-raging human beings and lock them together in a place where they could only harm each other and have NO good role models. What a waste for all kids IMHO. The vast majority of kids I advocate for are middle schoolers or high schoolers whose problems started in Middle School. If I ruled the world, I'd make it illegal for MS to exist and certainly illegal to subject any kids with autism to that broiling environment. Of course, there are possibly shining exceptions out there, but I have yet to see any. Keep your eyes peeled for a better option for your boys in case your MS does not improve soon.I agree with you 100% Tzoya. I am so happy for your family, son. I hope he will really like it there. |
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