annex
02-29-2012, 09:58 PM
I'm trying to gauge if the services my son is receiving are on par with other school districts. Can anyone share what kinds of classroom experiences their ASD preschoolers have/had?
For reference, currently my son gets 20 hrs/week of classroom services, in a room that has 13 students with autism diagnoses. There is one teacher (who is also a SLP), and three aides. There is another identical room, with the same staffing ratio. They are in the process of adding a 3rd room, but they are only hiring one teacher, so each room will be 8 or 9 students (for now) with one teacher but only two aides. One O/T is shared among all the rooms.
There are 3 levels of autism classrooms in his school, with the middle level being the one described above. The students in the middle level are verbal, but need a lot of prompting/behavior intervention/visual supports. Once they are ready, they move up the next level which is only 12 hours/week and where the classrooms include general education students as well as students with other disabilities.
Anyways, I worry. I know public schools can't keep up with the increase in students with this diagnosis. Every time they add a new student, the kids in the rooms (including mine) start acting out more to get attention. Which disrupts progress he's been making towards his goals. Do most people just give up and switch to expensive private clinics? Fight the schools with lawyers to pay for outside services when you feel what is being provided is inadequate? Or is what I'm getting already beyond what most public schools offer?
Thanks for any advice!
For reference, currently my son gets 20 hrs/week of classroom services, in a room that has 13 students with autism diagnoses. There is one teacher (who is also a SLP), and three aides. There is another identical room, with the same staffing ratio. They are in the process of adding a 3rd room, but they are only hiring one teacher, so each room will be 8 or 9 students (for now) with one teacher but only two aides. One O/T is shared among all the rooms.
There are 3 levels of autism classrooms in his school, with the middle level being the one described above. The students in the middle level are verbal, but need a lot of prompting/behavior intervention/visual supports. Once they are ready, they move up the next level which is only 12 hours/week and where the classrooms include general education students as well as students with other disabilities.
Anyways, I worry. I know public schools can't keep up with the increase in students with this diagnosis. Every time they add a new student, the kids in the rooms (including mine) start acting out more to get attention. Which disrupts progress he's been making towards his goals. Do most people just give up and switch to expensive private clinics? Fight the schools with lawyers to pay for outside services when you feel what is being provided is inadequate? Or is what I'm getting already beyond what most public schools offer?
Thanks for any advice!