Put in special ed without knowing!

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When I first started intermediate school I was year 7 [11 years old] I was put in a special ed class.

I didn't know until I was 14 and had finished at that school when I discovered an old letter in the back of a cupboard at home saying that I was put in there.

I was not diagnosed as having AS when I was at that school...so there was no way of saying officially that I had any kind of special need. The class wasn't for people with severe difficulties, there was a seperate unit for that. It was a class for people with minor learning difficulties, behavior problems, or social problems.

The thing is, I was never told! The teacher at one stage told the class in one of out weekly "dance lesson"...[which a saw on the letter was music/dance therapy] that our class had a diffirent curriculum to the rest of the classes and that we were all "unique students".

I am wondering, that if I was not diagnosed as having AS back then, what reason would they have to put me in that class? I am coming to think that I may have been diagnosed earlier, but there was a "fake diagnosis" set up when I was 15 so I was not angry for not being told earlier.

I am wondering...is it even legal for me to be put in a special ed class without being told? has anyone else had this happen to them while they were at school?

yes, its legal. what wouldn't be legal would be putting you in there without telling your parents. However, you could get put in there even without an aspie diagnosis if you showed some signs of being a delayed learner - that doesn't necessarrily mean learning disaiblity though. These days a lot of children are placed in special ed in kindergarten and first grade because they didn't go to preschool and no one at home was teaching them how to read, count, etc. On the first day of kindergarten children are expected to be able to count so high, know how to write their name, recognize some sight words, and do simple math (ie 1+1). I don't know about you but when I was in school we learned how to read, write our names and count in first grade. That doesn't cut it any more. I'm not entirely sure when the change occured. I kow its now attributed to the NCLB but i think it must have been gradually working its way their prior to that. Because if not, how do kindergartners have this knowledge in the first place.


Also what year were you 15. Its unlikely that you would have been diagnosed with As more than 11 or 12 years ago, and even then still somewhat unlikely until the diagnosis became more widely known and accepted as being valid

I wish I went to special education [in high school]; it would have helped me so much. Fish out of water I was.

I sometimes found myself in classes with delinquent types of students, but that was probably because of my attendance.

I really did not paid attention because I just didn't noticed. It was helpful to me at least.

Were you a poor student? If not they may have put you in special ed for behavioral reasons. I remember being put in classes with students who had obvious learning disabilities until about 2nd grade.

BTW, I got my Mensa card in the mail last night

I only did speech therapy. It was cool to get out of class of mostly review stuff from last year. I was supposed to skip 2nd grade but was pulled back for speech deficiency and general immaturity, rage, etc.

I do not take any special ed academic classes. However, I am in a resource room at the end of the day, last period, to help me get organized and stuff.

I was in S.E. for a few subjects like English, I also was in speech therapy in elementary school. While in elementary NT students noticed that I always left class to go somewhere else for an hour or two and usually made fun of me up until middle school, by that time everyone went to different teachers for different classes. IMHO being in S.E. classes wasn't that helpfull in highschool, by that time the teachers didn't have any enthusiasm for teaching or me for learning it was easy boring crap. Although some of the Vocational classes did have enthusiasm I enjoyed and excelled in those.

I was in se for English and math. I had a learning disability.

How could you be put in special ed without knowing it?

The special ed classes are completely different to the peer ones and the peers are also in some extreme cases very different then others

it would be like going to a fat camp or something and seeing all these fat ppl and thinking your at a normal camp that just happesnt o have to all these diets an stuff

I was in special ed for awhile but nowhere did i not realize that there was a big difference between special ed and normal schooling, special ed = 100 times more easier and they try to work with you more 1on1 support an stuff seriously how could u not know or atleast form some kind of consensus that something felt different?