Need help with school issues

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I hope nobody minds if I rephrase this and try again...

Hi all. I have a 14yo with Asperger, developmental coordination

disorder, neuropsych profile: executive dysfunction (working

memory/planning/organization/initiation), borderline gifted/very

bright, along with the usual social cognitive/communication deficits.

My son has gone rapidly from having no accommodations at all, through

informal accommodations, a 504 (which has never really been followed

too much since it doesn't work), and now they have decided to

recommend sending him to the Autism Team for a possible IEP. It is not

a done deal yet, but I want to be prepared.

All of his interventions and evaluations have been done by us, except

a brief IEP eval (they decided there was no need to go further) and

some 504 observations. Through his home program, he's had OT,

speech therapy (a waste of time), cognitive behavioral therapy (also

didn't do much), and social skills training. He's had neuropsych, OT,

psychiatric, and speech evals, and we're hopefully about to start

Autism eval (couldn't work out insurance before)--ADOS, ADI-R, and

others.

We've had some success with strategies from our OT/neuropsych (and

from groups like this), but one thing I've learned is that we can't do

this on our own. He needs intervention from all the everyday people in

his life.

My question. Has anybody gone through such a fast change in school

situation so late (he's in 8th grade--goes to high school next year)?

I hear what interventions they do with younger kids, but what

about older kids who have never had school interventions? I

don't know what to expect or what I should ask for in this situation.

This is Conroe ISD, by the way.

The one thing that is really sticking out is that his teachers need to

be much more effectively trained. But I don't know exactly what kind

of training to ask for, with whom, or how to tell if what they suggest

would be effective or not.

I can see he needs some special teaching because of his executive

dysfunction, his emotional fragility, processing speed, and

communication issues. But, I'm not sure what this should look like at

his age. Somehow I don't think they are going to be giving him

backrubs to get him in the mood to do work like I might do at home.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's been through something similar. It

might help to hear what they do at the private therapeutic schools in

high school, I don't know.

By the way--I don't have the budget for private school, attorneys or

advocates, just to save some of you from wasting your time on that. I

realize those are great ideas, but it's not going to happen.

Thanks in advance!

Ruth