ASD son and moving to Geneva. First port of call re schooling?

[Wuxiapian]

Hi, everyone.

As title says, really.

Aiming to move to Geneva next summer.

My son is 11 this month. He's been at a residential school (but as a day boy) for the past 4 years.

As he's due to begin high school next september, my partner and I thought it't be the best time to make the move; a whole new start.

We're not exactly sure where to begin/who we need to be speaking with.

Will my son need to be assessed independantly first, and if so by whom?

Any words of advice or experience very much appreciated.

Wuxi: Have no words of advice on this one. But as a mum of and ASD child, just wanted to wish you good luck with the move and to bump this for you.

Hi, Tess.

How's your child doing?

Thank you for the well wishes.

Mine is doing well & in a mainstream setting. Would never have thought it possible a few years ago.

Envy your courage at the move, it's something we'd have loved to do and would have possibly been a great career move for DH too. But now we just daren't upset the apple cart, for now at least.

Only help I can offer is it might be useful to find the name of a good & well respected assessment centre & have a full private assessment done for you to arm yourself with for any future needs, (maybe somebody from the lecture circuit?). I actually think that if we had ds assessed again today, he'd produce a report which would be totally different to the original one which was done only a relatively short time ago. (If that makes sense!???)

Anyhow... post school chaos surrounds me!

Hi Wuxiapian,
I'm in France, rather than Switzerland, but I think things can work in a fairly similar way here. Also, DD has developmental delay rather than ASD, but here goes. First question, do you want English schooling or French public schooling? If you want English schooling, simply contact the international school of your choice, because many of the international schools will have provision for special needs. We put DD into French school, but some people advised us against "forcing" her to be bilingual. A good start if you want your son to be in public school might well be the mairie. Try the website www.ge.ch/enseignement_primaire/inscriptions.asp#integration-handicapes for more information. (In French, kids with special educational needs are referred to as enfants handicappés - political correctness hasn't really reached here yet!). For more specific information you could try the Swiss autism forum forum.autisme.ch/. There's a similar thing here and I've found that really helpful.

HTH!
Brio.