With the school year coming to an end it’s made me reflect on an “Ok” school year. There were some things I was not happy about school. For one thing there is a shortage in teachers/substitutes/paras. My son’s teacher left because she wasn’t provided with enough supports. It was starting to affect her health. I was sad to hear about it, but I understand. School Admins are the ones I’m not very happy with.
Reading The Special Education Rights For Children
Something happened to Baby Hulk which caused him to get harmed by another ASD student numerous times. The worst happened towards the end of the year, and I felt that the School Admin handled the situation poorly. I decided to read the The Special Education Rights For Children. Honestly after reading that booklet it made me realize Baby Hulk’s SPED rights were not met, and he was put in a harmful environment.
How I Knew What Was Happening
Even though Baby Hulk is speech delayed, his speech has improved enough for him to articulate to me what happened. Every time I spoke with the School Admin I was met with they are dealing with the student, and they can not tell me what happened. Overall, I felt they were avoiding me. I am angry. So very angry. Not at the student, but just the deliberate way they are skirting the real issues. Baby Hulk, and others in his class are being put in situations where their seat-mate is allowed to hurt them through out the year.
I won’t go into what I will do next. I still decided for Baby Hulk to attend the same school. There is a new teacher coming in. I’m hoping they will listen to me more during his next IEP meeting.
Friendships & General Education Minutes
The school year wasn’t always terrible. Baby Hulk has developed friendships with the rest of the kids in his class. For the most part the kids he considers his close friends are like him. Hyperlexic/Hypernumeric. They don’t have a speech delay like Baby Hulk, but they communicate enough to establish they are friends.
Throughout the school year Baby Hulk has told me times he played with the kids with higher supports too. His teacher mentioned that he does try, and those kids are happy he makes an effort. I never really told Baby Hulk he has to play. For the most part his efforts are his own. Not me telling him the importance of inclusivity. I’m very proud of him.
When he told me he was frustrated another child did something that made him upset ( not physically attack) I alway tell him “I’m sorry that happened to you. So-so probably couldn’t control themselves, but you can always just tell them no, and you do not have to play with them until they learn to control themselves. They may not be able to control themselves at that moment, but someday I hope.”
He has truly blossomed this school year. I think next year we will work more on verbally voicing establishing boundaries. I know autism is a spectrum. I wish I can discuss more with him about it. Until then, we are working on more understand & dealing with what is going on now.
Another positive thing about this school year is that his teacher recommended General Education class for a set period of time per week. For the most part he has done very well. He stayed engaged enough, and even formed casual friendships with the neurotypical children. I’m very impressed with that class and glad he seemed to manage it well.
Now I know he has done well during his General Education minutes, but I don’t think he is ready to be mainstreamed just yet. I think they will just increase his General Education minutes in the new year. Since there is a shortage of paras in my district, they can’t assign him his own para. He will have to stay in the SPED AU class again. I’m ok with that decision. For one thing SPED AU has a calming room. It’s a much faster access for autistic kids to go there when they need to work through their melt downs/ burn outs.
Cheers To A Better Year
I hope this post gives a better idea to what a SPED AU elementary class can be like. Usually you can’t find personal experiences about these classes. Each district in the US have very different funding, curriculum, therapies they can provide.
