Ezra and Isaiah are currently attending Montessori International School. This is the school that I attended as a youngster all the way up through 7th grade. Ms. Therese is the Principal there, and I have known her pretty much my whole life. We are very grateful that they have allowed my two sons to attend there.
As this is a school geared towards typical kids, or in my mind muggles (non magic folk from Harry Potter), we are looking around at other schools to make sure that our kids are placed in the most ideal place for their situations. Prayers made and fingers crossed.
We have learned that there are very many strategies and options in our midst for our kids.
1. Public school - The kids are just integrated with typical peers.
2. Public school but in a special education program - Some of these programs have many children with different disabilities lumped in the same class, and some programs are specifically tailored towards children with autism.
3. Charter school - Still government funded, but independently run, so we may find a school that will go out of their way to work with our boys in a more flexible environment.
4. Public or Charter school with an aide - I was just speaking with a retired principal from a Mesa School District, and he told me that a school should be able to provide an aide to a child with disabilities, but you may need to fight with them to get one. He told me, unfortunately, there may be many battles with the school to be able to receive the assistance that the child should be entitled to. I also spoke to a teacher in a Charter school, and in her elementary class, she has a child with autism that has an aide with him all day. We have not gone through this process (yet), but this is the information that I have so far. I will verify, but if it is in public school, I believe an aide can be provided by the school, if it is a Charter or Private school the school may have an aide or one that the parents have through DDD (Division of Developmental Disabilities) can be used.
5. Private School with typical kids - This is a school that is not funded by the government. This could be good and bad. They have a lot of flexibility in tailoring to the needs of a child with disabilities, but have no obligation to do so or have any obligation in having a special ed program. As sometimes can be the case, an autistic child may be very advanced in certain areas and a school may be flexible in working with the child's individual strengths more than maybe a public school where there may be more stringent agendas for a grade level.
6. Private School for a specific disability - In our case this would be a school specifically designed for children with Autism. This could be good in that it provides a place where the child is being taught in an environment that assists children with disabilities. This could come in the forms of therapies being incorporated, lighting, more hands on work, or even workflow throughout the day. For example, in a typical school the days agenda may be told as the day goes on, things may change, or be impromptu. This would frustrate, and has frustrated my child beyond belief. At an autism school the children are provided an agenda for the day, everything is in order and preferably nothing is altered throughout the day. Little differences such as these things for an autistic child could be the difference between a happy and smooth day and hours of tantrums. The downside is that there are no typical kids, so habits that you may be hoping that will be imitated from observing typical kids may not exist. These schools typically have a very high teacher to student ratio. Sometimes as high as one adult per 2 children.
7. Hybrid Schools - I believe these can be found in public or private settings. Here there are typical kids mixed with autistic kids. One that we were familiar with was at a public school. We have also heard of Community School directed by SARRC (Southwest Autism Research & Resource). The focus is teaching kids with autism, but with the benefit of having typical peers. Parents of typical kids may want their children alongside autistic children due to the student teacher ratio, maybe a more highly educated staff, and possibly a more advanced curriculum. I'm sure that each school will differ slightly on what they offer.
8. Full time therapy - In our case, our kids are young enough for us to have a choice on getting them into a school in the morning and therapy in the afternoon, or just putting them into full time therapy. Many autistic kids will have one or more types of therapy outside of school. Therapies such as speech, ABA (applied behavior analysis), occupational therapies, etc. will help kids better adapt to typical living. Many of these therapies can be offered at schools with programs for autism, but outside school in a 1 on 1 setting will be much more intensive. There may be some social activities with other kids depending on where these therapies take place, but socializing will not be all around them like being immersed in a school setting.
9. Make our own school. I have no idea what that takes.
Ezra (4) and Isaiah (3) are currently enrolled at Montessori International School, a private school with typical peers (muggles). As we look into the different options, we will keep you up to date on what we find.
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