School Records

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Has anyone tried to get a copy of their early school records? In particular, people who suffered through the times before the spectrum was identified. I would like to know if they tried to send me to a special-ed school and how my parents stopped them. My parents are long gone.

I was always called a daydreamer by many teachers, and I was often told I was too quiet.

I doubt my school records are available.

Sure, daydreaming and too quiet were constant complaints about me. Being disruptive by failure to sit still is the one I wonder about.

I tried, but the records are only kept for 6-8 years in our area. I did get some clinician notes from when I was in middle school that were informative.

I am quite curious but do not intend to try.

My elementary school threw me out after 2nd grade. That is something they could do and in some states had to do by law to people with mental and physical disabilities. Generally there was not special education schools in the sense that we know them today in America. There were schools for troubled children with rich parents. While I was not violent they just could not get through to me. My mom was called in (fathers were not involved in those types of decisions in the 1960s) and told homeschool him or send him to a private school. I believe the reason institutionalization was not recommended was that both of my parents were teachers. A private school did take me for two years before my public school did take me back. During that time I did see two child psychologists. There is no diagnoses that is remembered, my mom was not allowed in.

I would love to see school records teachers notes and the psychologist notes to see if they pointed to autistic traits or common misinterpretation and misdiagnosis of autism in that era and it would be a gas to find out I was diagnosed with autism. But I know the psychologists are probably long dead and if they are somehow alive they are not going to remember me. My records were probably thrown out during the 1960s as records were on paper back then. I was diagnosed by a very experienced clinician, I know I am autistic and understand that spending a lot of time on a likely fruitless endeavor to fulfill curiosity is not worth it.

The second year I was in school at the age of 5, I was put in a room on my own and wasn't taught, as the teacher and my Mum had a dissagreement. It was actually just a minor thing. My Mum had spent ages with me going over my reading homework. Yet, when I tried to read to my teacher I couldn't get the words out. I kind of knew the book insideout as my Mum spent ages with me.
The teacher assumed that because I couldn't talk much (I think it was because she had strong perfume and she smoked so I could smell strong smells on her which was too much as they usually sat us on their laps so we could read to them, or they had us stand very close to them) that the teacher assumed that I had not done my reading homework.
Then, the teacher sent a note home to say I had not done it. My Mum just wrote a note back saying I had read the book, and that is when the teacher decided not to teach me that year.
I actually didn't mind sitting in that room on my own. It was a little lonely, but I preferred it to being in the class room. The door was normally locked so I couldn't escape. (I never tried the door, but I heard it being locked).
Sometimes other teachers would come in to fetch something. Not sure why but nothing much was said. I don't think any of the other teachers knew why I was there, but after they caught on I was daily in there, my teacher gave me a sheet of paper and put an old glass jam jar with pencils in it in the middle of the large table. She didn't tell me to work or give me any work. I think it was to stop the other teachers asking questions as to why I was just sitting at an empty table day after day while in school.
Then, one day I think I had been told I had to draw something? Not sure. The teacher was a bit nasty to me as in she was always telling me off or handling me as if I had been naughty which for me was odd as I rarely ever spoke as I was ultra shy, and if I was told to sit, I would sit as I was very obedient. I was always confused because the teacher would not tell me what she expected me to do and then tell me off. I believe it was when the other teachers were there, as it gave her an excuse for locking me in that room?
Then one day I went to reach for a pencil in the glass jar. It was in the middle of the table and the table was large. I think it was two large tables to make a large square table space. I had to reach right over. I may have had to stand on th chair to get it. The jar tipped over.
I stood at the edge of the table and held my hands ready so I could catch the jar as it came to the edge.
The teacher then opened the door and shouted "WATCH!"
Because she suddenly shouted at me, I froze, and the jar came crashing to the floor. I was smacked and brought into the class with the other children. I think there was only about a month or two left before the end of the year when this happened.
I remember when the teacher was having all the children sing. But if I sang with them I was smacked. I was used to being smacked by that teacher I guess as I thought it was normal to be told off and smacked for being like the other kids. I was very withdrawn and shy. I preferred to be in that room on my own because I was less likely to be told off (Hours away from the teacher!) and at playtimes (I think I may have been kept in at the normal playtimes and let out at lunch time? I am not sure,as I sometimes heard the children playing while I was in that room. Actually it may habe been when the other teachers went in the room).
But lunch times I hated as one kid would look for me and bully me. It happened time and time again. That room on my wn was so much nicer as I was left alone.
So my concept of school atnthe age of 5 to 6 was a bit different to others.
The last month we had a supply teacher who then included me, but as I was so far behind, it was almost pointless. What had happened was my origional teacher had to go to hospital and she ended up dissabled. The dissability coming on her... She had taken it all out on me, so in a way it was good that I was there to do that, as if it wasn't me she would habe done it to another kid and got into big trouble. As I was quiet and shy, my parents didn't know.
Many years later when I had left school or was in collage (I think I was in my very late teens?) my Mum was working for Gallup (And others) doing door to door interviewing. She came across the teacher. The teacher was dissabled. I think she was in a wheelchair. She was full of remorse and apologising to my Mum over how she treated me. My Mum accepted her apology and so do I. She explained to my Mum how she did not teach me for the entire year. It was the first time that my Mum had known anything about it. She said how she was going through a hard time. She was so sorry.
I forgive her. I know that life does not always give roses. I know that people don't always think straight. I know that forgiveness releases a blessing! I now love that teacher. No. I have not met her since I was in school. And she won't be alive today. She was close to retiring many years ago when she was my teacher in school. But I know thatwith forgiveness, one day when I get to heaven, I will put my arms around that teacher and hug ger and say "Everything is ok" and she will love me back. Just like it was supposed to be.
God has given us the power to forgive. It releases us of hates. It unburdens us and frees the captives from their sins. It heals broken hearts. It breaks through the harshest hearts to hear the words "I forgive you".
Sometimes life can be so cruel. The things that teacher must have gone through. The next teacher I had really brought me on. She was also an elderly teacher. She also became a family friend. My Mum didn't know and she didn't know what had happened to me. But she did used to speak highly of that teacher. She said that she was such a tallented lady. It is better to remember her that way. A tallented teacher. The teacher who became a family friend died when I was in my late teens to early 20's. I remember that teacher because when I yawned she said that I almost swollowed her up!

Last edited by Mountain Goat on 30 Nov 2019, 7:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

It was not conceived that I could be in a “regular” class when I was in preschool and early elementary grades.

I was in a special class within the public school system in first grade, but a specialized “brain injured nursery school” for Kindergarten.

Then, for second grade, I was placed in a special school for kids who could not hack the public schools. I was never officially in any “grade” from 2nd through 5th grades. I was in the first group of kids when the school opened for business in 1968. I might have been placed there because there was a big teachers’ strike in the public school system in 1968. I was in an academically-oriented class.

I wish I could get my school records.

After my parents couldn’t pay for the private school, I was placed in a regular class in public school for sixth grade. The teacher was an old school marm type who couldn’t take my behavior. I got thrown out of class a few times. I did okay, not great, academically.

In junior high, my behavior almost got me expelled in 8th grade. I seemed to spend more time with the guidance counselor or resource room guy than in classes.

Maybe, I was lucky that that private school had been established. It wasn’t exactly “autism friendly.” It has a disciplinary approach. I got thrown out of class a few times.

I remember trying to get my school records in 2002 only to be told that the school district destroys records after you turn 26 because they can under New York law. So much for your permanent record.

In any case, because I attended school is a larger district, I insisted until the person said that she would look in the basement of one of the schools to see if anything got left behind. Lo and behold, some of my records were there and based on what I got, it had to be where I attended middle school so they had to be sitting there for 10 - 15 years and largely forgotten in the purge. What I did get were records from the Buffalo Children's Hospital Rehab Center (which I really wanted to begin with) and middle school IEPs.

Note that the records include teacher's notes and the district refused to release those to me. I could have demanded them and even gone to court but then, ran the risk of the records being destroyed prior to getting a court order. In fact, during this time period, it has been known that school districts would routinely ignore court orders so I let it be and took what they offered.

I have a very small handful of letters re my time at prep and public school . My father did have a filing box with our school reports at least up to 1981 , when he was posted to Atlanta .

As posted before- my 1st school had concerns, but there was no talk of special schools/education . After a non-dx of cerebral palsy ,as it would be called now , my parents chose not to explore things further .

It was accepted I was badly co-ordinated, but that was about it . My parents were the opposite of those that throw a hissy fit if their son or daughter fails to come top of the class . After about the age of 9 my academic performance went on a gradual downward slope . My parents never voiced an opinion on that. On hindsight it was probably due to the effects of a learning difficulty(NVLD) kicking in .

I had difficulty interacting with other children , but that didn't raise any red flags . I had one boy I thought was a friend at prep school . I went to his house once . However over 45 years later I found him on Twitter and he blocked me . He'd become the kind of middle aged man that drools over pictures of scantily clothed young women .

There were no IEPs until 1975.

I went into a special high school the fall of that year. “For gifted underachievers.”

In public school, they just winged it with me. They thought I was a “behavioral problem.”

I still have some report cards from elementary school. My Kindergarten teacher noted that she loved my enthusiasm, but I needed to talk less during class.

It’s funny because as I got older I became very quiet. No one would say that I talked too much from around 12 and up.

I have nothing from middle school and high school because I homeschooled.

You could write your own report.

in fact there must be separate schooling

Welcome to wrong planet.

Each person is different but we should be integrate as much as and whenever possible. As adults we have to mostly deal with NT’s and they are going to have to deal with us. It is best that this process starts early. Of course there needs to be a lot of changes because how this has been done has not worked because of lack of understanding of autism. As understanding of autism increases and if hopefully the autism rights movement does not self destruct the improvements that have happened will continue.

I am also curious about my early school records but they no longer exist.

I have a few from when I was 2-4 years old (and plenty of reports from secondary), although I'm not sure where certain files are. Might be in the attic, or possibly thrown away. However, I do remember reading through some of my old school notes.

What I learnt from them;

- I apparently struggled to pay attention, and had a habit of wandering off during class to continue with my artwork instead.

- Generally withdrawn but opened up to others more during music class.

- Not great at following instructions, it was difficult to keep my attention.

- Repetitive behaviour.

- The selective mutism was gradual but sudden. It started with me writing less and less, then the verbal speech declined. A referral to a speech therapist was made when I stopped writing (which was the same time the verbal speech stopped). These days I'm usually fairly talkative.