Does anyone now of a school in orange county,ca that's for autistic children ?
Posted on March 18th, 2010 by jane
Putting groups of children together who are all similarly impaired and expecting them to learn the things they don't know, particularly with respect to language and social skills, is simply counter-intuitive. More often than not, they start mimicing each others symptoms. I've had kids with no speech problems come home after a month in a special day class for severely handicapped children speaking with an impediment because that's how most of the other kids in the classroom speak.
However, if your child is so severely handicapped that he/she doesn't have the social and language wherewithall to even begin working on these skills, then very intensive intervention is probably necessary to teach the foundational skills that he/she lacks so that he/she can get to the point where he/she is able to pursue facilitated social opportunities and develop his/her ability to communicate with other people.
Autism is a spectrum disorder, which means that there is a wide range of severity and every child who has it is different. You have to work really hard sometimes to come up with a placement that's an appropriate match for the child.
Placement is driven by IEP goals. Placement is determined based on what will see the goals met in the least restrictive environment or LRE. Placement in the LRE means they can't segregate the kids with disabilities just because they're disabled - the child must be found unable to access instruction in a regular education setting even with supplemental supports and services before pull-out can happen.
You can look up the database of non-public schools licensed by the California Department of Education at http://www3.scoe.net/npsa/index/index.cf... These are privately operated schools that are licensed to contract with the public schools to provide special education services to children with unique needs (meaning, their services are paid for by the public school system). Many of them serve children with autism, but I strongly suggest you visit any of them you may be interested in first.
If you child has not received appropriate programming and services during the last two years, you may have claims you could assert to achieve compensatory education. Comp Ed is basically services to make up for what should have been done in the past but wasn't, resulting in a denial of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to your child. If that's the case, you may be able to pursue a fairly intensive program for your child to address not only his/her current needs but also his/her compensatory needs.
The problem you may face is that you are in Orange County, CA. It's not that resources don't exist in OC, Heaven knows. It's that many of the school districts in OC have a reputation for being very difficult for parents to work with. You may need to involve an advocate or attorney to help you get the services your child needs. It depends on which OC community you are in, but most of the districts communicate and/or collaborate with each other to one degree or another through their associations through their Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs) and their attorneys.
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