Trying Times

I have done the unthinkable. I am enrolling my son in a private school with no special education program and no experience in dealing with special needs children. I have chosen to do this so that he can receive a religious education, be challenged academically, and be in a supportive environment, all this so that he can reach his maximum potential. We are lucky that we have enough means to be able to do this. Just barely. To accomplish this, I have met with a group of people from his school that included the school psychologist, principal, kindergarten teacher, special needs teacher (only deals with ADD and the like), reading specialist, and my sons preschool director. After calming every ones initial fears, and making promises to provide my own services and be a support person I set out to find a, no THE perfect aide for my son as well as a consultant to implement his IEP.  So, after much finagling, I found a great potential aide and independent consultant. Oh joy! Until I tried to make arrangements through the school to pay for this aide via scholarship and was told that this was not workable. Back to the drawing board. I then contacted a service that was more expensive but was the lesser of two evils compared to the other service I contacted. After the horror stories I have heard about the latter, the expense will be worth it.

    Here's the thing... I am well aware that he can attend public school for free. I also know that he would be in a special needs classroom. I know that he would become bored. He is becoming bored now in his second year of preschool. He wants to be around typical kids and shows a big interest in playing near and with them. He soaks everything up he sees and he is improving.

  I am enrolling him in the private school because I believe in inclusion. REAL inclusion. I also believe in giving him the same opportunity his sister in first grade is receiving right now. Am I really the only one that gets that? The scholarship I will be using to pay in part for his aide (I say that because it truly only pays partly for the aide,the rest is on our dime) claims to give parents of autistic children a choice, a way out of the public school system. Hmmm. Choice yes. My choice? Not quite the way it works.

  So, dear private school, please be good to my son. Welcome him with open arms. You don't know how hard I worked to get him here and how hard he works daily. Please don't succumb to the fear of dealing with an autistic child just because its a new experience. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from him. I have.