svengandhi
Well-Known Member
I am trying to help out a friend of mine with a 4th grader. My own son is classified OHI and attends a special HS for autistic kids, although he has no formal diagnosis.
My friend's son is very bright but struggles with school and has ping-ponged between self-contained and some version of mainstreaming his entire school career (we do not have inclusion classes in elementary school and have one, with 6 kids, in middle school).
She is trying to get him placed out of district and was told the following by the SD assistant head of Pupil Personnel " The (X) consortium of schools got together and decided to not include Aspergers in the autistic classification because they have so much more hope and expectations for Asperger children" X consortium is an informal group of districts which is NOT centralized but does contribute to some jointly run schools, including the one my son attends (which would be perfect for my friend's son - in five years!)
She feels that her son would get more services if he had a formal classification of Apergers (which has been diagnosed on several occasions and, honestly, this child is a textbook example of it) and I agree but told her that the SD does not want to pay for the increased level of services an autism diagnosis inspires.
I thought the autism was a separate classification category and that Aspergers falls within autism, so that the SD is violating the law if they persist in refusing to classify Aspergers as autism because "they have hope for better outcomes!"
My SD is the type that will react to parents who put pressure on them. I threatened to press charges after a teacher physically assaulted my 2d son and they changed his classroom and put him in honors math. I threatened to sue them for an arbitrary and capricious denial of entry into honors science for the same child and after a two hour meeting with the SD atty and the head of Pupil Personnel, he is in there. I got my 6th grader an out of district private school placement because they know I am watching them. Other kids, whose parents don't or can't fight for them, get squat.
I do what I can for people I know, behind the scenes, but I can't come forward for people like my friend as I need to protect my own children. As it is, I am part of a group that is meeting with the district head to discuss the teacher who assaulted my son (although he has not gotten physical with other kids, he is verbally abusive) and I know I face retaliation through my other kids, but it is a risk I take for MY kids. I am already planning on private school for my now 3rd grader when he hits middle school if the same principal is still there.
Anyway, sorry to ramble but there must be a short answer to my question about Aspergers' classification.
My friend's son is very bright but struggles with school and has ping-ponged between self-contained and some version of mainstreaming his entire school career (we do not have inclusion classes in elementary school and have one, with 6 kids, in middle school).
She is trying to get him placed out of district and was told the following by the SD assistant head of Pupil Personnel " The (X) consortium of schools got together and decided to not include Aspergers in the autistic classification because they have so much more hope and expectations for Asperger children" X consortium is an informal group of districts which is NOT centralized but does contribute to some jointly run schools, including the one my son attends (which would be perfect for my friend's son - in five years!)
She feels that her son would get more services if he had a formal classification of Apergers (which has been diagnosed on several occasions and, honestly, this child is a textbook example of it) and I agree but told her that the SD does not want to pay for the increased level of services an autism diagnosis inspires.
I thought the autism was a separate classification category and that Aspergers falls within autism, so that the SD is violating the law if they persist in refusing to classify Aspergers as autism because "they have hope for better outcomes!"
My SD is the type that will react to parents who put pressure on them. I threatened to press charges after a teacher physically assaulted my 2d son and they changed his classroom and put him in honors math. I threatened to sue them for an arbitrary and capricious denial of entry into honors science for the same child and after a two hour meeting with the SD atty and the head of Pupil Personnel, he is in there. I got my 6th grader an out of district private school placement because they know I am watching them. Other kids, whose parents don't or can't fight for them, get squat.
I do what I can for people I know, behind the scenes, but I can't come forward for people like my friend as I need to protect my own children. As it is, I am part of a group that is meeting with the district head to discuss the teacher who assaulted my son (although he has not gotten physical with other kids, he is verbally abusive) and I know I face retaliation through my other kids, but it is a risk I take for MY kids. I am already planning on private school for my now 3rd grader when he hits middle school if the same principal is still there.
Anyway, sorry to ramble but there must be a short answer to my question about Aspergers' classification.