I feel current services for children with AS are misguided

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I was one of the parents who heard the same thing. The principal told us point blank that because my son did not have a learning disability or a traditional speech problem (she was totally over looking his pragmatic speech deficit), even though he met the school criteria for autism, he could not get an IEP because, according to her, he didn't need special education services. So the school day deteriorated for him to the point where he was spending 75% of his time in the space place or hiding under tables. 2/3 of the way through the school year the principal finally opened her eyes and acknowledged that even though he was fine academically, he needed services.

The school would not test Daisy for an educational AS diagnosis in spite of her medical diagnosis done by a team at UVa Childen's. She has a 504 for her other medical issue, and the principal put the lunch buddies group in to "help keep her socialized due to her frequent absences and need for homebound instruction." This was after I had a lengthy meeting with the Director of Special Education services for the county. My next step with the system would be mediation, which I do not have the money to pursue. I did apply to the state organization which provides advocacy for the disabled, and was denied. Nowhere in the 504 does it mention AS. The homebound instruction has essentially provided us with a work around. Her Principal is aware of that.

I find it interesting the school system is will to pay a teacher $250 a week for providing homebound, and unwilling to accomodate/recognize her AS within a classroom setting, which would be less costly. The homebound also takes care of her need for differentiated education much more easily, she is working at least a grade level ahead in everything except history, and only because Daisy loves history almost to the point of it being a special interest, and as she says "I don't want to miss a minute of history!" If she were still in a traditional classroom she would probably be bored out of her mind. Right now she will graduate at 16. We found a way to beat the system, but only because of our very unique circumstances.

I was told similar when my son was in kindergarten. I was told that unless he fell behind academically or his behavior was so severe that he could not be in a mainstream classroom, there was "nothing they could do." Unfortunately for him, I was too ignorant to know any better at that time

That is horrifying, and I wish it were surprising. I'm glad you pursued it to the degree you did. Unfortunately, the one legal loopholes schools can use is to refuse to acknowledge that a disability exists at all...and it does often take litigation to get them to change that.

In our case, I am certain that the accommodations my son needs are less costly than the idiotic 504 he had prior to the outside diagnosis that caught the pragmatic speech deficit. We had a similar "lunch bunch" I think monthly (totally useless) and he was allowed to leave the classroom and that was pretty much it. However, he would melt down and disrupt the classroom, or hit kids, etc. etc. and take up everybody's time instead of just his own.

It's ridiculous. Up until 3 yrs ago, she didn't even have a 504, just a health plan, and this for a chronic, eventually terminal disease, that she was diagnosed with at 4 months old. When she was diagnosed AS, they finally decided a 504 was appropriate because they thought it would shut me up. Nevermind that there's no mention of the AS in it, as I mentioned before. I'm lucky, I think, that I had always been in a place where I HAD to advocate for Daisy, even before her AS diagnosis, otherwise I probably would have rolled over, as I'm sure many parents do when they don't know what their rights are, or as you mentioned, don't have access to the internet or a good support system.