Transition to next level

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We have a 3 and half year old son diagnosed with mild-moderate autism. He's been in structured autism class since he turned 3. IEP is recommending that our son transition out to shooter and less restrictive non categorical classes where he can be around more typical peers for role model and higher teacher to student ratio. In one sense this is exact what every parent wants to hear that their kids are doing well. However we are questioning their motives behind their strong push. First we know the current classroom is overcrowded so they have incentive to move a child out. Second, we visited the non-categorical class and we did not feel the peers were any better role models and it would just be less hours and higher teacher student ratio. The IEP is making it sound like if we don't move our child will get worse staying in his current program. We all know CA schools have budget issues and we feel it's more money driven not progress driven.

Would it really hurt our son's potential for learning to stay with structured autism class longer?

Our intention is to mainstream our son as soon as he's ready and we don't feel he is there yet and we feel he can benefit more from staying at his current program than moving him I to what we think is just shorter and cheaper program for the school district.

Any suggestions or recommendations?

You are absolutely right to have reservations about shifting your son to the more mainstream choice.

We were in CA schools at about the same age (age 5) when our son had just been diagnosed, and EVERYTHING was a fight, and EVERYTHING was about money -- so much so that we moved to a different state.

Do you have anybody from the State working with your son? Somebody supplying ABA services, or access to somebody who can act as an autism professional for your side when you go to IEP meetings? As bad as the schools were, the people who worked with our son through state programs were wonderful, and they advocated for our son whenever we went to IEP meetings.

I don't know what services your son is getting in his current program, but if it were me, I would keep him there if he was getting:

1) pragmatic speech therapy
2) play therapy
3) social skills help
4) occupational therapy
5) low student/teacher ratio
6) teachers who honestly care for your son and who truly know about autism

If moving your son now would eliminate more than one of the above criteria, I wouldn't do it.

Also, if your son is only three years ol;d, there is PLENTY of time to shift him to a mainstream setting. Right now is when you want as much specific help with the variety of autism problems. We didn't have our son diagnosed as young as you have, so you are definitely ahead of the game, and you may have an even better outcome. Having said that, our son was in a special needs kindergarten, but then he shifted to mainstream classes in first grade. He had aides in first through third grade, but each year they peeled away the support little by little. Elementary school had a strong speech therapist, and her help with conversational skills was CRITICAL. By middle school, my son had NO special needs classes. He is now in High School and is doing very well. He still has his problems, but considering where he started, he's doing great.

Your instincts are RIGHT ON. I would say you know exactly what you are doing.

Thank you for the encouragements. He is currently getting 5 hours a day of service for what you have listed. The new program is only 2 hr 15min with same OT and Speech goals but not enough time to get him help in all those areas.

We don't have anybody else we are working with. I have lost faith in our IEP team members. I asked point blank on very specific item we discussed previously and they all lied to me.