Aspergers and Private School

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As some of you know, my 8 year old son was diagnosed with Aspergers today. He just got an IEP last month Iit took them a year to finally agree to this!) and it was originally created with his original diagnosis of NLD in mind. They told me he didn't qualify for Occupational Therapy. This was after both of his doctors recommended he have one to aide in his written output AND they gave him an AlphaSmart, which obviously shows they acknowledge he has issues.

Today, I was told by the autism team that my son should be placed in a class specifically for Aspergers Children. They had mentioned some public schools have some classes integrated within the actual school that do this. I am pretty sure my sons school doesn't. I did find this school today that is private and it does have a program for Aspergers kids. I can't afford to put my son in private school, so do any of you have info. on how the school voucher (coupon) system works? I was told by a friend today to just ask his school for a voucher. I mean it is that easy?

I know the law is to keep kids in the "least restrictive enviorment" and schools are cheap as s**t when it comes to spending money, but i am curious to know what the law may be pertaining to this. I just don't know what steps I should take and don't want the school to try and screw my son of any rights he may be entitled to. Thanks for your help!

the best thing that ever happened to me was a program within the local high school which was for school phobics, who had a range of issues. we could have almost all classes self-contained, or have as many mainstreamed classes as we wanted. the support was awesome and i would have dropped out otherwise.

if your local school district doesn't have something available, it is possible for your son to be placed in a program in another district, at their expense.

i think you should at least consider all possibilities before jumping into anything. whenever possible/reasonable, i think some kind of daily interaction with 'normal' people is a good thing, so long as there is a proper support system at the same time. after all, when your son graduates, he's going to be living in an NT world.

I would seriously check out the schools that have integrated classes. I would kill to get my son in an integrated school. There is one here in town, one. But they won't even let me see it because it's so popular and there's no way to get into it.

The best thing that happened to me was the GT program....(Gifted and Talented)..
I got in in Jr. High....Made the rest of my school years bearable...The program was designed for intelligent kids who "learned diferently"...woohoo!

thanks for all the advice. you all have brought some very good points to light..

Basically a "special" school?

you say "special" with such a negative connotation.. it's actually a school with a different approach to learning..

http://www.ivymount.org/aspprogram.html

Do you live in the USA? If so, how easy it is to get a school voucher depends on No child left behind and a bunch of garbage like that. If you don't, I can't help you.

As a matter of fact I do. My friend had mentioned vouchers to me, but I don't even know how they work or how I'd go about getting one. any advice?

hey. i was/am happy to call myself SpEd. never saw the shame in getting the help you need. i wouldn't have graduated otherwise.