education

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Hi,
I'm from Israel, and have a young autistic child.
I'm doing a little research on educational options these kids have around the world.
In Israel autistics can go to regular schools and take their exams like everyone else, depending on their condition. My son goes to a regular school, since he has gotten a lot better in the last 10 years, but as a small child he went to a special kid garden.
He also went to a special place, not sure what to call it, a special center for autistic children once a week to work with specialists.
There are very other few options for them, school wise or finding a job, and most of the time we have to 'fight against the system'.

Sometimes the school appoints them a special assistant, and there are also a few schools the only accept kids with autism, pdd or asperger, but we're not sure it's for the best, and we don't know how good they are.
I wanted to know what is that like in America? do you have special schools, assistants? kid gardens? what about after school's over (i mean afternoon- do you have anyone with you kids)? do you other special centers, or special meetings?
What about in small towns, do they have that there?
Thank you
Riki

It depends very much on where people live. Things are different in different states, different cities, and also in cities it can be different from in rural areas. The general policy is to try to educate children in the "least restrictive environment." That means that if a child can be properly educated in the local public school, that's the first choice. If that school can't meet the child's needs, another public school in the child's school district might be possible. From there, they look at other options. The ideal is to educate a child with typical peers, but if that won't meet the child's needs, educating the child in a class with other children who have special needs, full or part time, is possible. The last choice, under the law, is in a school for kids with special needs. This is considered the last choice because children in a special school have no opportunity to have any time to interact with typical children. For some children, that's a problem; for other children, it's actually better, but the law considers it a good thing for all kids to be with their "typical peers."

If kids need speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, etc., in order to access their education properly, they are supposed to get those services in school. The kids don't generally need to go to a different place to get those services. School here, for elementary school (usually kindergarten (Gan) to grade 5), generally gets out between 3:00 and 3:45 in the afternoon. Middle school (usually grade 5 or 6 to grade 8 ) generally gets out somewhat earlier, depending on where people live. It might be 3:00. High school (grades 9-12) might get out at 2:30 or 2:45. Therefore, the afternoons are not as long, here, as they are in Israel.

Depending on the needs of the child, some children have an aide who works with the child in the classroom. Some have an aide who works with the child outside of the classroom (but is not a babysitter). Most people here, too, find that they have to fight, a lot, to get the services their children need.

I think Jat summarized very well. It varies here in the US by quite a bit, depending on where you live exactly.

In our county, most of the children will attend regular public school, and get some services through the school, such as speech and OT. My son has not received either consistently, as they will "graduate" him from the service when he has met the criteria for that age group (which is a very minimum standard) but he might requalify later as he gets older and the expectations of ability increase.

Some of the autistic spectrum children in regular public school will be assigned an aid. My son does not have one.

More severely affected children may be placed in a special education classroom, either with specical education children of various needs, or with all autistic children. County wide, to my knowledge, there is one all autistic class. District wide, one combined special education class. The district has about 3000 students in grades K-5; county wide there are at least 15,000 students total, grades K-5.

There is also a very nice private school in the area that some families with autistic children use. That must be paid for entirely by the family.

There is no public support for anything after school. If care is needed, the family must arrange it and pay for it. My son was able to attend the regular after-school day care with his peers, but he is very high on the spectrum. We paid the full fee for the after-school day care porgram, as do all families who use it. Since after school programs are privately operated and paid for, they do not have to accept your child into the program if the operators do not know how to handle the special needs. Most our county are trained and willing, at least with higher functioning autistic children, but that is their choice.

There is no special center in my area providing services specifically to autistic sprectrum school children. Most regular programs, however, have done well with my son. He has done mainstream soccer, summer camp, theatre, swimming lessons, and Boy Scouts, etc.

it's sounds a lot like here, except for the services they get at school (if it's a public school).
Here also we have to fight in order to get them out pf regular school, like we need to prove they have a problem...

I hope that you keep up the fight, for what's right for your son.