How good are the autism/special ed resources in gwinnett/fulton county schools? (Roswell: appointed)

[arand]

question already posted

[rackensack]

My son has Asperger's Syndrome. He attended a very small private school for the first and second grade, and when it closed we enrolled him in our local neighborhood school in Gwinnett County. It quickly became apparent that he was going to need accommodations in order to function effectively in a public school environment. The staff of the school, from the principal through the special ed staff, school psychologist, and his teacher, were extremely helpful in working through the evaluation, classification, and IEP process. There were already mechanisms in place at the school to provide support for autism spectrum disorders, including speech therapy, small-group social counseling, and other interventions/accommodations. While this particular school would generally be considered among the worst elementary schools in the Gwinnett system, I have nothing but praise for their efforts and abilities in that area.

Fulton County, not so much. By the time we enrolled him in the Gwinnett school, we already had our house on the market with plans to move to either Roswell or Dunwoody -- there were lots of reasons, but school quality was among them. We moved in the middle of his third-grade year, and he's now in the fifth grade in a well-regarded Fulton County elementary school. Frankly, we've been a bit disappointed in the school's offerings for his situation. The staff have been receptive to our efforts to work with them in developing an appropriate IEP, but they are unable or unwilling to offer some of the interventions/accommodations of the previous school in Gwinnett. Speech classes are only offered for specific speech defects (which my third-grade daughter has, and she has benefitted from those), not for functional/social language use issues such as those faced by kids with Aspergers. They do not offer any sort of small-group social skills counseling or assistance, and they've been unable or unwilling to consider incorporating adaptations to mainstream curriculum that, in our opinion, would be beneficial in that regard. The burden has fallen on us, as parents, to educate the staff (even the special education and counseling staff) on the nature of Aspergers and the challenges faced by students like my son. In some cases, teachers have regarded our suggestions and requests as meddling in their teaching approach at best, or in the worst cases as criticism of them as teachers or as making excuses for inappropriate behavior. Other staff members have been more receptive and interested in his situation and have done what they're able to, but they clearly have had no prior exposure to or education in this type of student and the challenges they face.

Obviously, this is anecdotal information from one family with experience at two specific schools, and shouldn't be taken as reflecting anything more than that. However, there is another family in our neighborhood with a son with Aspergers the same age as my son who had pulled him from our local public school after third grade over their dissatisfaction with how it had dealt with him. I've also heard the opinion from other parents in the area that the situation is worse in middle school -- that our local middle school resists making any accommodations for kids with autism spectrum disorders, imposing draconian disciplinary expectations in order to get rid of "problem" kids who could potentially have a negative impact on their test scores. Take that for what it's worth, as hearsay from sources of unknown trustworthiness.

Overall, I don't regret our move (for that reason or any other) -- our son has coped reasonably well so far and while last year was a serious challenge (he and his teacher did not get along at all) this year has been better, and our daughter is doing extremely well in every respect. My advice would be to try to talk to the principal and special education staff of any school you'd potentially be sending your kids to in order to understand what services they are able to offer and what their general demeanor about the subject is.

[leasleyann]

name some

[maryann331]

Hi Rackensack, great name lol! Can you tell me a bit about the autism program, because I am currently homeschooling my so, who is 10, in 4th grade, with Aspergers. He had an IEP this year but noone bothered to tell me about any autism programs before I began homeschooling him on Mar 1st. They still wont now that I found out about it after the fact. Thanks, MaryAnn

[Raistlehoff]

Maryann331, my 6 yr old is enrolled in the Georgia Virtual Academy program, k12. She loves it, and her teacher told me yesterday that they do have special needs programs available, and within the parenting community are several autism support groups established. My 4 yr old has PDD, and ADHD, along with behavioral disorders, and has been evaluated by the Marcus Institute for Autism. They were very helpful and did extensive testing. However, we live in Dekalb county and as of this weekend will be moving to Gwinnett. At an "end of year" IEP evaluation today, the Dekalb child Psychologist told me that based on the state requirements, my child does not meet the necessary requirements for the Autism Spectrum Disorder, yet she did confirm her diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Which is in fact on the Autism Spectrum. Not to mention, the Marcus Institute did in fact do a bloodwork panel and determined she has a genetic form of autism. So, needless to say, we aren't pleased with Dekalb. They initially weren't going to accept the Marcus Institute's diagnosis and performed their own "
Addendum" testing, stating that the results of the Marcus Institute were influenced by questions they asked us, her parents...the ones who take care of her 24/7. Hopefully we will have better luck in Gwinnett.