moving back from special school to mainstream

[theDudesmummy]

Hi, sorry if this is a bit long. I wonder if anyone has any experience of moving a child from special school back to mainstream?

DS is now 12 and and he is autistic. He started out in mainstream but with 1-1 ABA tutor with him at all times, until he was 9. We then moved him to a special school because we felt that would be better for him.

He is now in a different special school because we moved country. The school he is in now is for autism and moderate learning disability, which was kind of where we thought he fitted, although his cognitive profile is extremely spiky and he never did fit into moderate LD across the board.

He is happy at the school, but I must admit that I have had at the back of my mind a nagging feeling that he is not being fully challenged to reach his potential. I have not, because of Covid, met any of the other children there, but I am aware that his language, for example (he is non-verbal but types) is far ahead of that of his classmates.

The SLT just phoned me today and said that she has just redone his assessment (she last saw him a year ago) and she was "blown away" by his progress, maturity and his language ability. She is going to get an EP to redo his assessment as well (he last had an EP assessment about eighteen months ago), but she thinks that he may not be having his needs met in this setting and that he does not really "fit the profile" of the children at the special school. She described to me how there was probably not another child in the whole school (which goes up to age 18) whose language at the level of his, or who would even have sat through the whole assessment and concentrated without a break, as he did.

She suggested considering a local mainstream which has recently started a special ASD class. What would people do? DS does not have any actual challenging behaviours but he does sometimes skip about, flap his arms a bit, and hum quite a lot (although not when he is actually concentrating on something). He communicates by text-to-speech. He is very sociable and quite trusting and naive. My main fear is that kids might tease or bully him, but I suppose that would be carefully looked out for (it is not a very big school, it is in a village, and it has a great reputation academically). I imagne if there is a special ASD class then the neurotypical children in the school would be encouraged to be understanding and tolerant as part of their learning?

This came out of the blue so I am not really sure what to think. It is obviously vital that DS reaches whatever his potential is and is not help back by any "one size fits all" approach, he is a rather unusual person (according to all the professionals, not just me!) and it is hard to know what is best for him.

I'm afraid I don't have experience of moving settings but my DS has just started in an autism resourced provision attached to a mainstream secondary school. He is also 12.

In my son's school, the children in the provision spend almost all their lessons with their neurotypical peers but with full time adult support. My DS has smaller classes for maths and english though and he doesn't learn a foreign language. I know you say you are in a different country so obviously I don't know how things differ elsewhere.

He can go to the unit at lunch/break times. So far there have been no issues with the other children - although of course it's early days. My DS is verbal but his behaviours can be quite challenging for the staff and I imagine his meltdowns can be disruptive. I get the impression the staff are used to it though and I've not been called in - so far!

Have you spoken to the staff at the mainstream option? Have you been able to visit?

I do know of someone who's child moved setting. It was handled very carefully over a fairly long period of time. The DC spent some time across the two settings so everyone could assess how it was going.

If it's happy in his current school, would they consider getting in specialist tutors to 'stretch' him academically?

I do appreciate it's a very difficult decision you're being faced with. It sounds like your DS is making wonderful progress.

Thanks so much for the reply. We are in the very early stages of this (there won't be a place at the other school until next September anyway). My DS does not really have tantrums or meltdowns (except very occasionally at home, he's never been known to at school) but he does hum a bit, which I imagine could be distracting to other kids (but he does stop when you tell him).

Wrt maybe getting specialist tutors in at the special school, I actually think that the teaching per se is fine, there are only five children and three teachers in his class, and they can give him a lot of individual attention and get him to do things that maybe the other children are not able to do. I think a big problem though is that he does not really have any interaction with his peers, they do not really communicate between themselves (or even much with the teachers) and DS is not getting any socialisation or modelling of language use between peers. He is contanstly talking but only the tecahers are talking back to him.

I think we will go for this if it is possible...

I think there is a huge difference between a special school and an enhanced resource attached to a mainstream secondary school and suspect the leap may be too much.
My son attended an enhanced resource attached to a mainstream secondary and whilst I would say that the support he received was excellemt it was all geared to the academics and my son found it incredibly stressful and transferred to independent specialist for post sicteen.
For me the enhanced resource was the worst of both worlds, he wasn't a part of a mainstream secondary because the enhanced resource placed a barrier between him and his peers and he had none of the social support or daily living skills support that he'd have got in a special school because the constraints on the timetable and the TA's skills were geared to the academics.
Have you looked at independent specialists who can provide a bespoke curriculum tailored to your child's individual needs? So dd's independent specialist can cater for children sitting A levels as well as for children who will take entry level qualifications and alongside the academics there are also real life skills being taught, practical work experience and SALT and OT on site giving individual therapies and supporting lessons.

Thank you for that. Where we are there are no independent special schools, but there is one other special school that I am looking at too. I am awaiting a new psychology assessment and see what they say.

Move him. You are very lucky to have a professional tell you that your child is not reaching his potential in the school and for you to look elsewhere. Having a professional tell you this is so rare, your SLT cares.

The issue is transitioning to a mainstream
Setting with an ARP. I think, well the ARPs I've seen, are different from a primary setting with an ARP. What we saw in regards to mainstream school with an ARP is that the child has to be functioning in the majority of he mainstream classes 60-80% of the time and go to the ARP to cool down or receive direct interventions.

I think you should take a look at independent special schools. I work across many secondary schools and the ones with SEN usually get left behind... not intentionally. But every school is different this is just my own experience.

No independent schools at all here, never mind independent special schools! Yes, I am grateful to this SLT, she seems to be making a real effort for DS. She says she is looking at all the options and once we have updated EP assessment (which will be done in next couple of weeks) then we will talk again...

There are not many options here, the mainsteam school special class is one, another is a special school which for ASD and mild rather than moderate LD (he is in the ASD/moderate LD one at the moment). The difficulty is, as often with ASD kids, he has a really "spiky profile. He is technically moderate LD is some areas, mild LD in others, average in yet others, and actually ahead of his chronological age in both receptive and expressive language and his use of technology. So he does not fit neatly into any pigeonhole.