Do I need a lawyer for this? Hello everyone! I am a mother to a 7 year old boy who is High Functioning. First let me give you a little history. We had just moved to Hinesville, GA from Weatherford, TX and he did excellent in his Kindergarten class there(They have awesome Autism support and teachers) (we're military) and enrolled him in the school he was "Zoned" to. Well he HATED it. They couldn't reach him on any leave. My son who was a happy and loving child turned into something else completely. You could tell he was stressed out, tired, and upset after coming home from school everyday. They couldn't keep him in the classroom because he just kept telling them he wants out like he needed to break free. They couldn't even get him to do ANY work. It was so surprising to my husband and myself so after a couple of weeks of this I called for an emergency meeting to do a reevaluation of the situation. After having 2 meetings they finally agreed that he needed to be in a school that had a Autism specialist teacher. We made the switch to school right after Thanksgiving break and ever since he has been doing fantastic. My son is back to his happy fun loving self. Now here is were I'm seeing a problem. Now that he is doing sooooo very well in this school the school board is going to want him to go back to the other school. How do I fight this? Do I need a lawyer? He stays in his reg. 1st grade mostly all day and then has 2 subjects with his Autism teacher if that at this time. His Autism teacher and myself feel that if they make him go back to the other school he will revert back to the bad behaviors of before and we'll be right back to square one. I want to keep him in this school for my son's peace of mind and also to keep him in close proximity to the Autism specialist. I am willing to do whatever it takes to keep my son in this school. He is getting all A's and he is so happy and loves his teacher's and has many friends here and I don't want that to end for him. I don't know what it was but my son just could not cope with the other school. Any suggestions or advice on this matter would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks, Rebecca Oh, also need to know one more thing. If I do need a lawyer for this situation what type of lawyer would I need? Do you know for sure that they want your son to transfer back to the other school?  This is a big decision that goes against you're son's best interest, and I think the district would have a hard time making the transfer without your support. Do you have an IEP in place?  Placement is an IEP team decision and that will give you a forum to make your arguments and resist the transfer. Whether you need a lawyer is a fact-specific decision and you haven't really provided enough information to know if it's time.  If you hold an IEP meeting where the district insists on the transfer back, you can refuse to sign the IEP and get a "stay in place" order that keeps him in the current school.  At that point you could talk to a lawyer. You will want to find a lawyer that specializes in education issues.  Typically a big city will have a handful of attorneys with this type of specialization.  I don't know about your area - you'll need to ask around. Thank you so much for responding! We do not know for certain at this time. It's just been implied several times that they would like for him to go back to the other school especially for next year. Yes, he does have an IEP and it says in his IEP that he needs to be seen by his Autism teacher at least once a month and he also needs to see his occupational therapist and speech therapist(these 2 are a few times a week) which are all in this school that he is in now. I think that he will being staying at this school for the rest of the year. Now that could change and they could end up telling me they want him to return to the other school before the school year is out but I don't think that will happen. I just wanted to know what I could do on my end to keep this from happening. That way I am prepared before hand should anything happen that I do not agree with. The closest "big city" to us is Savannah,GA so I'll check into it. If there's anyone who knows the area I'd really like to know your suggestions :) Thanks again! Rebecca
	Copyright Autism-PDD.net