What does your school do with autistic children?

[CarrieMF]

Originally Posted by mibarra It depends on the kids here. We have self contained autism specific classrooms, with various levels of mainstreaming depending on where the child is at. We also have mixed disability special education classrooms. Some kids are mainstreamed with minimal support. We also have intensive support classroom for kids with severe delays and medical issue, such as CP with MR, extreme MR, basically kids who will never progress past an elementary level and need assisted living their entire lives. Some are still in diapers as high schoolers. They stay in school til 22.

Same here, except all SN kids graduate, walk on stage in the cap & gown ceremony, do the whole dress/tux thing, grand march, etc.

At the highschool I work in we have 2 kids in self contained "classrooms". They are learning life skills & routines. They are in self contained classrooms with 2 educational assistants each(1 to record, 1 to work with them). They have violent tendancies. The 1 only comes Mon-Thurs starting at 10:30. The goal is to have him there all day but he rarely makes it past 12:30. The other one is there from 9:30-2:30/3:00. If he is having too rough of a day he goes home early too.

[mibarra]

Originally Posted by CarrieMF Same here, except all SN kids graduate, walk on stage in the cap & gown ceremony, do the whole dress/tux thing, grand march, etc.

Those kids graduate too, they walk the year they graduate with the rest of the high school where the program is housed.

[ariandsofiesmom]

I do not believe that we have pre-school classrooms, etc for just ASD kids at this school...I think. My daughter has PDD-NOS (among other developmental diagnoses) and she is in a class of 7 or 8 kids with different dev issues.

[Suzi]

Thanks for all the input!

I can't imagine not having para support in electives! DS does ok in art and gets minimal support. A peer helps set up supplies for him. But for music and PE he definitely needs extra help, as do his autistic peers.

[dibber]

we have a variety of services, ranging from 100% self-contained classrooms with 1:1 ABA based support, to kids who are included nearly 100% of their day in a gen ed classroom with part or full day assistant and/or special educator support. all special education support is intended to work on areas of need - this may include social needs (most of the students receive some sort of social skills support and/or pull-out services), speech, OT, PT, adapted physical education, academic, and behavior.

the goal for all kids, no matter their current level of functioning in a gen. ed classroom, is eventual full inclusion. of course, this may or may not happen for all, and the district is well equipped to deal with most types of kids on the spectrum, at least at the elementary level. there are programs at the middle school level, too, but not the full range like there is at the elem level, and of course the social/academic components become a bigger deal.

i'm not a parent of a child in these programs, though.. i'm a teacher

[Lklasmama]

My daughter is 6 and has Autism. She went to a developmental pre-school from just before 2 years old, until she was 3. Then she went to a pre-school class that was for children with Autism, the teacher and all of the para-educators in that classroom are amazing, she was in the class for 2 years, and when she started she was pretty much non-verbal. At the end of her 2nd year she was speaking, telling us how she felt, and was completely ready for general-ed Kindergarten! She is in 1st grade now and only has a little support in the resource room every day, and sees an OT and a Speech therapist outside of school once a week. When we got her diagnosis, I never expected that I would now have a daughter who tells jokes, cuddles with me (she wouldn't even give hugs and didn't like being touched), and is thriving in a general ed environment academically and socially.

Sorry, got a little off track. Our district's goal is to get kids in general ed as much as possible. I do have some issues with our district itself, but absolutely love all of the special ed teachers and para-educators that I have worked with. The kids are their top priority, and they are so patient with them.