After the huge national struggle for students with special needs to be included in “mainstream” classrooms alongside typically-developing peers, some special education advocates struggle with programs like the Autism Scholarship. Some express frustration at programs that seem like moving backward to schools specifically for students with autism.
Students absolutely should have a “mainstream” school option. No question about that. But mainstreaming isn’t always the most appropriate option at a given point in a child’s education. As we read yesterday, some families find that schools for students with special needs fill an important void in the education landscape.
More than that, sometimes the scholarship is the key to help students successfully transition back into mainstream classrooms. Without the right skills and adaptive training, “mainstreaming” can be unsuccessful or counterproductive. With specialized training, students are often able to mainstream seamlessly, in ways that wouldn’t have been possible without early intervention the scholarship offers.
Nancy Naylor-Sarangan
“At this point in my daughter’s development, I know that she is not ready for a classroom, but I believe that by using the Autism scholarship we can get her to a place were she is ready to go into a classroom and succeed.”
Richard George Vah Jr.
“Our son still has some language delays, and social skills delays, but he can go to a regular kindergarten class where his sister goes if we so choose. This is due to all the hours of hard work by him, my wife, our ABA team and all his therapists and teachers, almost all of which we were able to pay since we had the funds provided by the Autism Scholarship Program.”
Tim and Cathy Anderson
“These last few years have been a learning experience, and we have changed the types of intervention they have received; but the autism scholarship has given us that flexibility. They are now 7 years old and in a typical kindergarten at a private school with an aide and are doing very well. If it were not for the autism scholarship, we believe that our boys would not have gotten the appropriate services they needed and would not be where they are today.”
Christine Muczyk
“No two kids are the same, but with small classroom settings and enough teachers, the kids can start to come out of their shell and adapt to society so they can get into the mainstream school system.”
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April 20th, 2010 at 10:48 am
First of all, here I am again commenting on how much the Autism scholarship means to us as a family and most of all to our grandson J.J. who attends a school for autistic children.
I think it is the desire/dream for every parent of an autistic child to have them mainstreamed back into a regular classroom, if or when that is possible.
I do not know about anyone else out there, I can only speak from my own personal experience, but our public school district is a nightmare everytime IEP time rolls around.
The impression they gave us and those reps with us was that THEY could provide his services in the public school system, which simply is not true at this time. They actually was rude at one point and I feel it just comes down to the fact that they hate to lose the dollars$$$…How sad, but we are so thankful that WE DO HAVE CHOICES!!!! THANK YOU SCHOOL OF CHOICE FOR BEING HERE!!!! THANK YOU AUTISM SCHOLARSHIP FOR GIVING ALL THE J.J’S OUT THERE A CHANCE TO HAVE THE BEST SERVICES POSSIBLE AND TO FUNCTION TO THEIR BEST ABILITY!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!
April 30th, 2010 at 5:38 am
[...] talked about their hopes to “mainstream” their kids back into typical classrooms and the joy of hearing previously nonverbal kids speak [...]