Re: Is North Carolina a great place for AS students?

[Guest guest]

I think it may depend on where you go. I would definately NOT recommend the

Goldsboro area. We are active duty Air Force and asked to move there to be

closer to family and because it looked like they had all kinds of great services

for the kids with disabilities. Within 6 months, we were miserable. At one

point we even had to file assault charges against a 1:1 aide in order for the

district to let us move our son after he was attacked by a staff member. After

less than 3 years, the school district basically called my then 10 yo AS child a

monster and said there was nothing they could do. They wouldn't even let him

attend a regular middle school, even in the special needs classroom (those are

the teachers that called him a monster and so on). The only school they would

allow is the alternative school for all the kids who the school couldn't handle

any other way (these aren't kids with difficulties, by the way). After that

revelation, we went to the Air Force and it took only 2 weeks for them to tell

us to start packing. Normally the process takes at least 6 weeks for a decision,

and I've seen people wait a year or even longer. We had to move to Louisiana

(which is one of the worst states in the nation for education) to get a fair

shot at school for him.

We've been here about 15 months. Within a month of school starting here, my son

was in all mainstream classes going to school ALL DAY. Before, he was only

allowed 2 hours a day at school at most. Yes, we have still had some issues

with the schools here, but they are minor for the most part, and usually quickly

remedied when I bring them up to the school.

Sorry for the rant. I hate to see people having to go through what we did just

because they made the same mistake we did and believed the websites. We are

from NC and still don't want our DS in those schools. I wish we had had a group

like this at that time (we didn't know about it then) and someone to ask about

that place before we spent 3 years there and destroyed all the progress we had

made with our son.

Angi Clifton

>

> Is anyone from North Carolina? I see all the support and training

> available and it sounds so great.

>

> http://teacch.com/programs-and-services

>

> This was listed as an evidence based school intervention.

>

> Pam

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for this information. The NC training looked so good and

appropriate for our AS kids. I guess it is still up to the schools to roll out

the programs and they just are not, even with such good regional support

available.

I am so happy for your family though. What is it that LA

is doing that your son is doing well mainstreamed? How is it that

the kids accept him in LA?

Pam

> >

> > Is anyone from North Carolina? I see all the support and training

> > available and it sounds so great.

> >

> > http://teacch.com/programs-and-services

> >

> > This was listed as an evidence based school intervention.

> >

> > Pam

> >

>

[Guest guest]

We thought the same thing about the training. We looked at the websites for the

schools in Goldsboro, and they even have a school for auties/aspies. The

problem does lie within the schools and districts.

Here in this district, they had a program designed for HF auties and aspies.

The goal was to mainstream these kids as much as possible. Our son always had

the ability to mainstream, the problem in NC was that the teachers and staffers

didn't want to take the time to deal with the issues these kids have. This

state gives money to the individual schools that have kids on IEP's and 504's

enrolled. This money goes directly to those schools and not to the district

itself, so that is a good incentive and reward for the schools to increase their

training and bring in better teachers and aides. And it works. The program for

the auties was disbanded after last school year since the district thinks that

all schools can provide these services. The district allowed us to complete

transfer papers though so that we could stay at the school we started at, even

though we are out of district for it. And they still provide transportation for

us as well. They offered that to all the parents of the kids who were in the

program and would have had to change schools with the program ending.

So it's not so much what these people do here as it was what NC WOULDN'T do.

They were too busy to bother with the kind of help that these kids need.

Additionally, they didn't both with teaching on grade level for those kids that

could do the work. They taught to the lowest denominator, and since the

exclusion classes were mixed-level and disablity, that often meant about 2nd or

3rd grade (if that) no matter what grade they were actually in. I don't think

my son learned much, if anything, in the last 2 years we were there. Luckily

(maybe), La is about that far behind NC in curriculum so he was about where he

should have been when we moved here.

As far as being accepted, it's a little better than some other places we've

been. For the most part, it's once again the difference with the schools. The

school my son attends is VERY strict about teasing and bullying since they do

have a large population of disabled kids. We had a kid tease my son about

something one day in the bathroom, and the aide must have over-heard it from

outside the door. He stopped the kid when he came out and warned him that if he

heard anything about him teasing ANYONE else, he would be suspended. That was

the only warning that kid would get. It helps, especially when you have a kid,

like mine, who has developed paranoias as a reaction to a medication he was

taking for agression. I couldn't imagine how bad it would be if the teasing

wasn't as well controlled as it is.

Sorry, got carried away again. All the classes I take have finally fried my

brain. I always have to have papers of at least a certain length and it seems I

can't write less than that any more on anthing!

Angi

> > >

> > > Is anyone from North Carolina? I see all the support and training

> > > available and it sounds so great.

> > >

> > > http://teacch.com/programs-and-services

> > >

> > > This was listed as an evidence based school intervention.

> > >

> > > Pam

> > >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

I cannot respond to the actual school systems. But I can verify that TEACCH is an excellent program. Or at least it was many years ago before I had an Aspie of my very own. I taught Autistic preschoolers at Princeton Child Development Institute for Autistic students and was sent by my school for additional training to attend a TEACCH summer training program for teachers. It was awesome and I learned a lot. Who would ever guess I would become the mother of an Aspie just three years later and be unable to receive services for my own child in the school where I had taught because my district would refuse to pay the tuition for him to attend. Sadly even when services are available, they may be just out of reach.

--------------

Is anyone from North Carolina? I see all the support and training> available and it sounds so great. > > http://teacch.com/programs-and-services> > This was listed as an evidence based school intervention.> > Pam>

[Guest guest]

I can't recommend the Charlotte/Mecklenburg (CMS) school district. However, it

is a very large district and students may be treated better in the schools tied

to richer neighborhoods. The kids without special needs generally are.

With bullying, I've found that once kids reach middle school, the schools don't

take much of an interest in it. And since our older son has gone to different

schools, I've been able to compare several in the system. My Aspie DS started

6th grade this year and it was the bullying that forced him out of school, and

we're homeschooling now. It was horribly discouraging after we worked so hard

to get him into the arts magnet program in our district, which was supposed to

be a good school. It certainly isn't for an Aspie, despite their claims that

they had experience successfully teaching Aspies there.

I have a friend who's considering homeschooling or moving out of NC to get a

better education for her two sons on the spectrum. They're both middle

schoolers and CMS is pushing to send the younger to the special school downtown

for the severely disabled. Assignment to that school would be the total

opposite of mainstreaming and not at all appropriate for this child. (His

psychologist is adamant that it's a bad idea.)

The people in Mecklenburg County who seem happy with school assignments tend to

be attending private schools, including one targeted toward Aspies.

Bronwyn

>

> We thought the same thing about the training. We looked at the websites for

the schools in Goldsboro, and they even have a school for auties/aspies. The

problem does lie within the schools and districts.

[Guest guest]

TEACCH is who evaluated my son for his dx in 8th grade. They will work with the

school systems. I do think that each school system (in each county/city) will

differ with regard to autism. And not just each system, but each school.

With , his middle school psych had never met a person with autism. While

when we had his first 504 meeting in high school, the psych there explained to

everyone what Aspergers was and were fine with whatever accommodations he would

need. LOL, however, for his OCD issues (not related to the AS), *I* had to

explain (educate) them for that.

For any in NC, I wouldn't hesitate to call the state regarding any issues (needs

not being met), as they do offer training for teachers and schools but first

someone has to report the problems.

Quick thoughts.

>

>

>

> I cannot respond to the actual school systems. But I can verify that TEACCH

> is an excellent program. Or at least it was many years ago before I had an

> Aspie of my very own. I taught Autistic preschoolers at Princeton

[Guest guest]

Wake County has just adopted a new student assignment plan that is very similar

to the one that the Charlotte/Mecklenburg system has had in place for years. So

most likely everything I said about CMS will be true about Wake County within a

year or two. (That's why the opponents to the plan fought against it since they

had a nearby example of how the plan plays out.)

Wake was supposed to be a really good district in NC, so this development is

sad. Here's an article, if you're interested:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011107063.\

html. The political slant isn't entirely helpful since CMS made this change

years ago.

Bronwyn