Special School placement or not

[english1]

At what point do you decide that your DC (HFA) should attend a special school that is not academically acheiving. Do you think we are setting DC up for failure or what - likely to pick up some habits or not, likely to fall behind or not, more disruption and distraction or not, less routine like or not and loads more - any opinions.

I guess the issue arises if your DC isn't coping at mainstream school. Have not had to face this one as DS (HFA) is now at mainstream secondary but there was a point when he was in primary that I thought he would not be able to hack it in mainstream secondary or they wouldn't take him because of his behaviour. The only ASD school in our area does not have particularly good academic results so did worry about this as DS is very bright. I think if he had not coped in mainstream, we would have been forced to send him to SS or poss Home Ed as an alternative.

I think you can only base it on how your dc has coped at mainstream school so far - presuming that is the position you are in. Is your dc at primary school?
Do they have a statement of sen already? Also, although they are rare, some special schools, particularly if they are aimed specifically at children with HFA/AS, will have reasonable results. Obviously if you aim to get a place at a private special school you will have to fight to get funding from the lea. In our case the decision was essentially made for us as ds failed to cope at mainstream secondary and was out of school for over a year while we fought to get him a place at a special school with a mainstream curriculum. With hindsight it would have been much better if it had been a planned transition from primary school.

Also you may get more feedback if you were to post over on special needs children.

It is not an easy one but what I did was concentrate on what was best for my . He had been at mainstream all the way through Primary and when I started the search for secondary that is what I wanted. Before I begun I made a list of the things that were important for him - not me - in a school. This included ability to make friends, be included in class discussions, take part unsupported in school activities - gain independence. After visiting 10 local secondaries non of them really floated my boat. I went to see a local special school. So not what I wanted but within 10 mins realised it was so right for him and ticked all of the things on his list! He has been there a year now and although it is by no means perfect he wants to go to school and has made progress.

Yes of course I would still like him to go to a mainstream school. He should be able to be successfully included but for him (not me) this was the right choice. Hope this helps. Good luck.