Mainstream vs Special schools for children with ASD's.

[essbeehindyou]

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My stepson was put in a residential school for children with behavioral problems. It was a godsend for him. Partially because it took him out of the awful unstable setting of his mother's house (hopefully not the issue in your case), but also it was great for him because he got lots of one to one attention that he needed. Much of his behavioral problem was a result of learning difficulties (undiagnosed) that resulted in his being far being the other children academically and also he is physically very small for his age too. They eventually put dss on ridalin (sp?), which dh and I opposed, but it did dope him up enough for the school and his mother to be able to control him. He was always well behaved for dh and I and we felt that his behavior problems were primarily because of the instability in his home and his learning difficulties and that drugging him really was not dealing with the root of the problem. All of this is to say that you may find that sending your ds to a special school for a period may be really helpful in getting to the root of his behavior issues and hopefully help you with tools for changing the behavior. It doesn't necessarily have to be a permanent move. Dss is now back in mainstream school.

essbee,

First thing I would ask is whether your DS has a Statement or not. No statement to my mind equals no support.

Have you contacted the NAS? (National Autistic Society).

Also have you looked at IPSEA's website; there's a lot of info on there re permanent exclusion. www.ipsea.org.uk

What have the LEA said to you about this matter?.

Sorry for all the questions but answers to the above may help you further.

I would also post this on the Special Needs board; you'll get more responses on there (it seems more widley read that this particular board) to your question along with more suggestions as to what to do.

Am sorry this is happening to you, the self same scenario happened to a friend of mine and her son is now in a special school (at that time he was supported by a Statement). It was very badly handled by the school in question.

My dss had a statement, but the mainstream school resisted it for so long that by the time he did get one, it was too late to catch him up with the rest of the kids his age. Also, be careful about what happens in between. Dss was at home "waiting" for a place for 6 months in between ms school and special school. He was supposed to be gettting tutoring during this period, but somehow it never seemed to happen.

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Hi, sorry to hear things are so stressful at the moment.

I am assuming as you think your son is going to have to be moved it will be as part of a proper "managed move".

Who has said that he will be moving? Has it come from general comments at school rather than an official path?

It would be reasonable for you to be asking what stratergies have been put in place? How long have they been given? How have they been monitored? Have behavioural support services been involved? What is the autism outreach input.

Or am I on the wrong track and are you concerned about possible exclusion?

Dh just got a phone call from his ex to say that dss has just got a glowing report from his mainstream school. I take it with a grain of salt because I don't believe a word dh's ex says, but the fact that he is still in the mainstream school and hasn't even had a temporary exclusion, much a less a permanent one, means that the special residential school that he was in was a big help. What part of the country are you in. I think that the special school that dss was in is supposed to be one of the best.

essbeehindyou, is the only option boarding? I always resisted my chap going to a special school and he was ok in mainstream during primary but there is no way he would have survived secondary. He's in a special school now which does all the subjects and expects the same as a mainstream the only thing is is that he gets loads of therapies. He is in a class of 5 to 10 kids and its a bit like an exclusive private school but we don't have to pay. He does have a long taxi journey each day. Even being in a special school year 7 has been tricky at times (suddnely going from loads of 1 to 1 to being independent) and there are things you 'give up' at a special school rather than at a mainstream but if your kid is less anxious and stressed then surely that is to the good. There are loads of kids in mainstream that desperately need statements and aren't even on school action and some that most definately need a special school place because they just can't cope or are only just coping in a big, noisy environment. If you have the option of a special school place - don't turn it down - go and have a look. I've looked round quite a few - where are they suggesting?

Best of luck

I'm that a boarding school is the only ss option. And if you want him to stay at his current school I think it's worth pushing very hard; you're supposed to have the choice, aren't you.

There's a group called (I think) Parents for inclusion whose area this is, I'm sure I once had a phone no for someone, if you can't track them down come back and I'll try to find it, maybe they'd be helpful?

Having said that, something that I think is really important for my ds2, who's in special school, is the diff I think it makes to his self-esteem.

It's not always him who can't deal with the noise, or keep up with the speed the teacher talks, or is spooked by something, it's just as often someone else in his class, and he'll come home and have a laugh with us about other funny ways that other people in his class have.

It gives him some space to relax, not always feeling like he's about to get it wrong.

I know it's not what you asked for, and I really hope you don't mind me posting this. I'm not in any way saying that ss is right for all children, or your child.

I don't know much about such things, but why are they suggesting boarding? Is the school very very far away? I would imagine that special schools would vary greatly - so I suppose see how many children with similar issues to DS are at the school in question, and how they seem to be faring/achieving, and whether the staff's attitude is positive when they are talking to you.

My guess is that the reason they push for boarding school is that it's a way of separating children from the home environment so that they can start new habits and training without preconceived habits and ideas. Probably not every child needs this (sounds like this may be the case for essbee), but I suspect that the majority of children are more like my dss who really did need to be taken from his mother's home. In our case, it was just a pity that sending him to live with his father was not an option that anyone would consider. We would have happily had him and probably have achieved the same, if not better result, but the system somehow thinks that a boarding school is better than a father. Anyway, I digress...
Essbee, I think that being very very clear on what the transition plan is, is probably the most important thing you can do before making a choice about whether this is the right move for your son. If there is a sensible transition plan, then maybe trying the boarding school for a term might be worth doing. And also, check what the long term plan is for reinclusion in mainstream school. In my dss' case, it was always made clear that reinclusion was the goal. In fact, they wanted to do it before we thought he was ready and we pushed for him to stay longer.

My life became 1000 times easier when ds1 left mainstream.

If a school can't cope with challenging behaviours it's far better that he's in a place where they can. DS1 at the moment is being fairly nightmarish behaviour wise and I send him off to school each day without a second though as I know they can cope. I'd be a gibbering wreck if he was still in mainstream.

I would say try and avoid EBD schools- not good for children with AS- where do they have in mind?

I can understand why you are concerned about residential but usually its a battle to get a place (because its so expensive) that really isn't going to happen without your agreement.

There are autism specific schools a bus ride away from you although I'm not sure what "level" they cater to. There's supposedly a database on the NAS website giving a list of special schools, but it's far from complete- might be a place to start though.

Sorry, just reread my post...just wanted to make clear that I don't think there is a problem in essbee's home....And I also hadn't quite twigged that her son has aspergers....Seems odd that they want to take him out of a nice stable home if he does....do they have a scientific/medical theory for why they want to . Seems to me that you shoudl be entitled to hear it at least.

I work in a special needs school and I think its a very special, fab place for the young people that go there - our students have a range of difficulties (mostly moderate). they aren't 'lost' in the school, all staff know all students by name, classes are small, support systems are v good - we have a lot of students who move out of mainstream and come to us but it ends up to be a v positive move in terms of boosting their morale and confidence. They shine and stand out in a smaller school more suited to their needs. hope it's a good move for your son too

SofiaAmes- I suspect its more likely there's no suitable specialist provision locally.

But still, even with that, residential would be unlikely to just happen because of the cost.

sorry, didn't realize it was a boarding school, hope you can resolve things

here essbee The Torbay units should be close enough for day provision- sometimes MLD schools take children who have no learning difficulties but have challenging behaviours related to autism- you would have to find out from each individual school, but I would have thought Torbay was busable.

he only school on the list I'm familiar with is Bidwell brook, but I think its more SLD.

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I think I would probably agree essbee. I know that if S still has his communication problems when he starts school, I would rather he went to a language unit, where the teachers/staff would be experienced in his problems, and where he would be with kids with similar difficulties, rather than be the only one in the class with a problem, and dependent on how good a particular LSA was as to what sort of support he got(obviously assuming that any help actually is/would be forthcoming of course, which may be too optomistic...)

I'd missed this Essbee - I'm glad you're feeling positive about it.

I work in MS secondary school: and we have several statemented children with ASD of various varieties. In general when they have complex needs I see very little advantage in practice of inclusion, and lots of disadvantages.

If you want to know any more details, then do CAT me.

Will the transition be immediate/soon or in September?

I also work in MS secondary and totaly agree with Roisin

I have seen inclusion work with a very few children with ASD, but these were at the very high functioning end of the spectrum. As Roisin says, with extra complications it seldom works.

Agree with Gess that EBD school isn't approriate for a child with ASD. Off hand, I cannot think of anywhere worse.

Oh essbee , feel free to CAT me if you want a shouldrer to cry on

As you know I have 2 asd kids. DS1 is at MS (now with supprt), wothout the support it didnt work but seems to be now , it took a lot of fighting and stress to get that help though.

DS3 is due to start MS in September and he just can't. To the extent that we are pulling him out completely until they are sorted- either he's ready for MS (FGS even the 1-1 cant change his nappies they'd call us in ), or they get him a palce in SN. There's both an ASD unit and a Communications Unit within 20 minutes of us- but his statement has to be done first (due October so no good for Sept. anyway), and then it has to go to another panel for SN school).

Now, I know of 3 people in a similar palce yto you. Firstly should boardinge cver be something you WANT I have an e-mail atatchment I was once sent of people someone I know used to access funds to send her DS to boarding school. Also my firend has an ASD child she just can't sope with any mroe (she is single mum to 5) and she is considering boarding. She ahs looked into it and there doesn't seem to be suitable premises nearby (there's and ASD unit at the school he attends but LEA won't give him access ), he needs help badly but LEA aren't really interested.

The problem we have is that the whole lea seems to be set up for money saving- an ed psych (OK advisory teacher) even explained aptiently to us the other day that ASD is caused by too much TV or game boys. DS3 doesn't have a gameboy though he's obsessed with his brothers.

What am I wittering on about?

Ah yes

Different kids on the spectruma re as chalk and cheese and hence there's no right palcement for all spectrum kids. Mum's instinct imo is usually right and I would go with your gut. Moving kids is never a good idea if not needed (they wanted to trial ds3 in MS and them probably shift him after 6 weeks- do I look stupid? not that you can see me ). BUT If an LEA is suggesting specialist provision it usually means its needed as it costs and LEA's hate spending.

NAS definitely a good start, also IPSEA perhaps if you can get through? I practice though I find harassingt he LEA and my MP / AM is the best way forwards. Sadly.

Again, Its a horrid time having to make this sort of decision

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