Help-Best public schools for Autism, Atlanta area

[roxyrn]

As your son is a teenager, you are about to enter the realm of postsecondary planning. I believe that starts at age 14. What are your goals, hopes, expectations for your son? If, you want him to graduate with a regular (non special ed) diploma, he will have to pass the regular curriculum as well as state tests here in Georgia. If not, his options after high school will be limited. I know there are some loopholes, but that is basically it.
Many of the Georgia public schools have suffered massive cut-backs, and although they still must comply with IDEA, they may not be giving as many services, such as Speech and OT, that you are used to. You may want to check into private schools, but I would want to see if they will enable him to attend community colleges, tech schools, universities after completing high school. Or, he may be staying in high school until age 21, if needed. Every child is so individual. You really should make appointments to talk the guidance department of several public schools as well as private.

[lastminutemom]

I posted this on a thread with a more generic title, so I thought I would also add it here...

In some states, I know that private school placement at public expense is very common for students with IEPs.

THAT IS NOT THE CASE IN GA.

Private placement at public expense is rare and generally takes years to acquire. Attorneys are nearly always involved. And parents don't always win.

Two or three years ago, the GA legislature passed a bill that is known as SB 10. This allows families with students who have IEPs to take the funds that they would normally earn from the state to a private school. However, local funds are not included. The amount averages around 6K but most true private schools for students with special needs cost much more. A child has to have been fully enrolled in a GA public school with an IEP in place for a year to be eligible.

Georgia Department of Education - Georgia Special Needs Scholarship (http://www.gadoe.org/sb10.aspx - broken link)

In addition, parents of children with more moderate to severe needs are finding few really good options in the private sector.

This is an organizations of private schools that specialize in serving students with special needs. I cannot stress enough that you need to be down here visiting both public and private schools.

Member Schools

Another resource is the SB 10 approved schools list, however many, many of these schools don't take kids with real significant needs and are not required to provide any services at all. You will need to google the schools that fit your geographic needs to see if they would work.

http://www.gadoe.org/DMGetDocument.a...36ED744&Type=D (broken link)

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by kmoon322

I am moving from California and will be working at Carrollton. It seems like there are some private schools in Alpharetta and nearby cities. But I guess it is too far from my work, even though I will only commute three days maximum.

I wonder what kind of programs Marietta schools offer for my son. Do you know if they have good programs for non-high functioning autism? Here in California, my son is going to a county program that is designed for students with autism. This school supports him pretty well in terms of behavioral or sensory issues. But in terms of other areas including academics, I am not quite happy about what they do.

Do you know if Marietta offers special programs or school specifically targeting autism? Or all special needs students are mixed together? How about speech therapy and OT? Do schools provide those services?

Reading from previous posts, I am a little afraid to move to GA now. Many messages said the services are pretty bad, and I wonder how bad they are.

If you will be working in Carrollton, I recommend looking in the following areas for good public schools:

1. Southern Douglas County (Alexander High and its feeder schools)

2. Coweta County

3. Southern or Eastern Paulding County (South Paulding High, Hiram High, or East Paulding High and their feeder schools)

4. You may want to look into Carroll County Schools, Carrollton City Schools, and the Bremem City Schools as well.



I hope this helps a little. Good Luck...

[lastminutemom]

I hear absolutely fabulous things about Breman City Schools. Really great things. I know very little about geography -- I am challenged that way.

But Breman City Schools are often highly touted.

However, you need to make sure that they aren't oursourcing special ed to their county school system. Some city school systems aren't large enough to meet the needs of all their students and they sometimes "pay' for their special needs students to attend the county schools.

[roxyrn]

You really do need to do your homework and not just take what the districts say at face value. If your child has extreme issues, you may be looking at being sent to a school outside of where you should be. (that happened to us once and it was both good and bad, but in the end maybe mostly bad because although he got the most support, we lost out on socialization that comes more naturally from being at the same school as the neighborhood kids)
In Georgia, the problem we had was that until we were enrolled, they would not sit and look at current IEP and tell us what they would provide. Also, at our school, IEPs are done annually on or close to the student's birthday.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by lastminutemom

I hear absolutely fabulous things about Breman City Schools. Really great things. I know very little about geography -- I am challenged that way.

But Breman City Schools are often highly touted.

...

Yes, they are. That's why I listed them.


And the Bremen City Schools are very close to Carrollton.

[lawl_rawr]

I have to disagree on Coweta County. If I had to do it over again I would have been better off moving to northern Atlanta somewhere or homeschooling my 12 year old with Asperger's. Pretty sure I could get our advocate to say the same.

[cemkurt]

do you know if ESOL classes provided for autistic children at 1st grade? We will be moving from Germany and wondering about this as he is able to communicate in German. I hope learning another language will not frustrate him. we are planing to leave around johns creek, duluth ga, 30097 but east cobb is also an option. thanks,
rose

[lastminutemom]

If he has ESOL needs, then those will be met. But, you are very unlikely to find a special ed ESOL teacher. How high functioning is your child and what is motivating your move?