Can you help me with an issue I need to raise with my son's pre-school

[catski]

My son has an autism diagnosis and as such he is entitled to an extra assistant in his pre-school. My husband negotiated hard for these extra hours and managed to get our kommun (we are in sweden, it's basically the local authority) to give us an assistant for 20 hours a week.

In spite of my son's diagnosis, his condition is very mild and he is does not exhibit any challenging behaviour at pre-school. He is very gentle and quiet and I feel the biggest danger is that he gets overlooked in the class which is why it would be especially helpful if this assistant kept a careful eye on him and acted in part as a facilitator to encourage him to join in with other children.

The problem is that the school keep nicking his assistant - offering them a job elsewhere in the school - and we only get to find out via a weekly class newsletter. This has happened twice now. He was allocated an extra assistant in september - in december they moved that assistant to another class, only letting us know by way of this newsletter. When we approaced them they said they would get another assistant for him, but that it's difficult to do because it's only 20 hours a week and it's hard to get an appropriate person to only do that many hours, which I understand. We got a new assistant, and now I find out (via the class newsletter again) that she is replacing one of the full time teachers who is going on maternity leave. Again, no mention to us in advance of announcing this to the world at large, and no mention to us of who is going to come in as my son's assistant.

I'm furious about this. I feel like they are taking advantage of the fact that my son is entitled to this assistant and basically using it as an opportunity to try people out before offering them a job elsewhere in the school. I'm also bloody naffed off that they don't discuss removing my son's assistant with us before announcing it to everyone.

Other than that it is a good school and I don't want to piss them off, but I really want it to be raised, especially given that this is the second time it's happened in 6 months.

How do you think I should raise it with them?

Oh, and also, I know the assistant will need to be used as general cover if my son's teacher needs to do extra admin on account of him extra, but whenever I pick him up (they are playing outside) I never see the assistant with my son - she is generally taking care of the more boisterous types and my son is wandering around on his own, which is not how I envisaged things.

tbh given how they are not treating you with respect with regard to the assistant, I wouldn't worry about politely pissing them off. Does your DS have a paed who could write to school about importance of consistency etc for your son's progress? don't know the swedish system - as to whether there is any legal document similar to statementing that would give you some protection as to use of the assistant?

Thanks totalchaos. I am so non confrontational and hopeless with this sort of thing. Think I will leave it to my husband to take up as he is much more robust. My son has a great psychiatrist who I'm sure would step up if necessary. It's a long story but part of the problem is that my sons diagnosis is under review and I think the school have assumed that it will be removed, but unfortunately it hasn't.