My son has high functioning autism which is a neurological disorder. He is kind and smart, but he can have difficulty in school with sensory issues, overstimulation, transitioning, & processing his emotions. In previous years he had the teachers and tools that he needed to be successful. Unfortunately, his needs were not met at school this year.
My son enjoyed attending school in Kindergarten and First grade and was successfully mainstreamed in the regular education environment starting at day one with the right teachers and support. Second grade has not been a positive experience for him. It has been the opposite of everything that he has experienced in previous years. He did not have a teacher who understood him or was able to connect with him, and he did not have appropriate resources, if at all any resources implemented in the general ed classroom to support him to succeed. He did not have access to the resource classroom or sensory room when needed, as was listed as resources in his individualized education plan. My son's rights were being denied.
Without the right teacher and resources, my son's behavior began to escalate in the classroom and he would become resistant to completing work. Instead of implementing appropriate resources or settings, my son was taken to the front office and secluded daily. They did not have someone to be with him when he became overstimulated or overwhelmed, so they felt that the principle's office was the only option for him, even though his individualized education plan, or IEP, states that he will have support in the general education setting and access to the resource room and sensory room.
My son did attend a resource segment once a day with a special education teacher who was also his case manager, but he no longer had access to her classroom at other times during the day. Funding had been cut at the end of the previous year, and that teacher was now co-teaching much of her day in a fourth grade classroom. The school would not allow the para pro to be in the resource room with my son unless the other teacher was present. The sensory room was not a viable option for my son either, as most of the day the room serves as a self contained classroom for children with physical disabilities. The school did not offer appropriate resource settings for my son, and yet ultimately, the classroom should have been made an appropriate resource setting through flexibility and the implementation of appropriate resources.
Looking back, I remember the resources and care that his Kindergarten and First grade teachers had in place for him in the general education setting. They would redirect him through kind communication when needed. They would implemented resources such as IPad time, computer time, or bean bag time. They would allow him the opportunity to sit next to them to complete an assignment. They would allow modifications and accommodations in the methods or completion of assignments. They would reward him for positive choices and behavior. They would let him be the line leader to help him succeed during transitions when surrounded by sensory stimuli. They would even hold his hand or hug him at times to show him that they cared for him. He loved and trusted them, and they loved him, and for that, I am forever grateful.
Inclusion was important in previous years, and finding the balance of inclusion for my son should have been important this year.
In October of 2015, I advocated that my son have access to a para pro that could be there for him when needed so that he did not always have to go to the principal's office. This resource should have been beneficial, but in turn, it was detrimental. At the end of October, they hired a kind man who did not have experience with special needs children, but they felt that he was the right one for the job, and I was open to exploring this match. I thought it would be a good learning opportunity for the para pro, and I hoped that he and my son could form a close connection.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the para pro was orchestrated improperly and poorly, and this anticipated connection did not occur. First thing in the morning, the para pro would remove my son from his classroom, take him to a small room down the hall and create a schedule for the day. This schedule would include work time and break time.
I see now that my son should have never been removed from the classroom setting or been given a different schedule. Resources should have been implemented and offered in the classroom setting. When my son needed a break, it should have been as simple as letting him sit at a computer with a pair of headphones on, as he worked on a reading or math computer program. This is what I asked they do at the beginning of the semester. I am not sure why simple resources as this weren't implemented in the classroom setting. Classroom support is a main point on my son's individualized education plan, and yet there was little support offered.
One of the main issues was that my son was placed with a second grade teacher this year who was very structured and did not want to deviate from her plan for her students. Her classroom management skills meant so much to her that she failed at helping manage my son in class. She also failed to communicate in any length or depth to me about my son. It is sad for me to state my realization, that some teachers may not yet have the experience, compassion, care, concern, drive, or intuition to teach students with special needs.
Needless to say, the implementation of the para pro did not help matters at school. My son began to spend even less time in the classroom setting. The para pro did not take my son to the resource room or sensory room, which was a listed resource setting on his IEP, when he needed a break or needed extra support. My son's school schedule became completely off-balance. In a matter of weeks after having the para pro, my son began starting his day in the conference room at the front office, and he would rarely leave there. The little training the para pro received was training to teach him the methods of deescalation and restraint and a training called "How to work with difficult children."
The difficult behavior my son exhibited this year at school was a direct reflection of the lack of resources in the general ed setting, implementation of resources and tools, and access to positive resource settings, all things that were listed in his IEP. My son experienced multiple restraints this year, something that he had never had to experience before. There were times he wanted to escape the conference room, only to have the doors blocked by employees who eventually restrained him.
What my son experienced at school this year was a nightmare, a situation caused by incorrect teacher placement, no classroom management, a lack of implementation of resources or settings, and inappropriate decisions and reactions by staff.
In November of 2015, we were told that we should either change our son's school setting or his school schedule. He could transfer schools and attend a school 30 minutes away from our home, a school in which he knew no one and be in a self contained class all day, or we could try a half day school day in which I would pick him up at 12:10 each day. I agreed to the half day school day because I wanted my son to still have interaction with his peers and the community that he has grown up with. Making new friends and becoming comfortable in new settings is not easy for any child, much less one with autism.
I accepted the offer of a half day school day, but what I soon realized was that my son would have even less interaction with peers, and some days, no interaction with peers. In retrospect, I find myself thinking that maybe this was their means to an end.
And so the downward spiral fell, a downward spiral that led to the most climatic moment for me in my son's school career.
On Friday, December 11th, I was under the assumption that I was attending an IEP meeting to discuss ideas and tools that we could implement at his school to help him be happy and successful. The intentions of this meeting were the exact opposite. I was told that they no longer felt that my son could attend school, and that he could receive after school instruction or in home care.
I was angry. I felt it was a horrible proposal. My son was only attending school for a half day as it was, and he would receive absolutely no social interaction or ability to have relationships with peers with this proposal. I felt that I had been deceived into attending this meeting, as every person at the table, except the parent advocate, had been debriefed on the underlying agenda of this meeting except me. I should have known when walking into this meeting that something strange was going on, when there were twice the number of people sitting at the table than were on the meeting notice, another legal faux pas.
I adamantly stated "No," multiple times and explained that this proposal was not an option.
The response I received being, "If we cannot come up with another option, then you will need to accept what we can offer."
This proposal was a violation of my son's rights to be given a free and appropriate public education and an opportunity to be around peers. I refused this discriminatory request.
I expressed my many concerns to the superintendent and the board of education, but they seemed more interested in trying to get me to agree to having a full psychological evaluation done on my son. The behavior of our son at home and in the community has not changed, so we did not see a psychological evaluation at this time as necessary. I want them to investigate what has occurred to our son at school. I want them to communicate about out concerns or at least validate our concerns. I have sensed no remorse from any party involved about what has occurred to our son at school or in the meeting that took place on December 11th. There was no apology, formal or informal.
So this is where we are at now . . . with a complete lack of trust in the school system and a sense that children with autism are being discriminated against at one of our county's schools.
Injustice has been done by the school and the school system and trust has been lost; and as for now, our son is no longer at school. We have decided to homeschool him for now and keep him involved in extracurricular activities until a better opportunity presents itself. His happiness and safety are of the utmost concerns to us. He was not happy at school and the experiences he had this year were not safe for him emotionally, mentally, or physically.
There is more to his story . . . and I hope that through all of this, our voice will be heard and change will occur.
