School program for special needs (Eugene: transfer, school district, salary)

[frozencarrot]

Ciao,

I'm considering moving to Oregon with 5 yrs old autistic boy in this summer. Currently, we got IEP meeting and teacher suggested he could join regular kindergarden with 1:1 aids. I wonder if Eugene school district offers good special needs service including 1:1 aids in regular classroom. Also, if you're familiar with this field, please recommend me a good school for my special boy. Thank you for your kind help.

[Steve Pickering]

Schools in Oregon are going through a financial crunch. Payroll and salary comes before programs here.

[haggardhouseelf]

My kids went to Gilham Elementary school. There were lots of special needs kids there, each one with their own IA and on IEP's. Gilham has a wonderful speech therapist as well as other specialists that work with the kids on IEPS - those with special needs and those who just need extra help.

I would highly recommend Gilham, though as Mr. Pickering mentioned 4J (Eugene public schools) are having a nasty time of it budget-wise, I believe the funding for these programs comes from the federal government because they are required by law to provide these programs due to NCLB. (I think... don't quote me on that, it's just what I was told by another parent who has an autistic daughter in 4J)...

Gilham feeds into Cal Young Middle School, which is an awesome middle school in Eugene. It didn't use to be... but within the last few years not only does the school have a brand new beautiful building that seems to have made a world of difference in the attitudes and behaviors of everyone there, but the principal is also wonderful. She's warm and caring and really listens to parents. She's very laid-back and not uppity at all. I have always felt that I can really talk o her, about anything. We love Cal Young.

Now... Sheldon... the high school that these two schools feed into... I won't go into that right now because for the past two years Sheldon has been nothing but a pain in my butt. BUT... the new superintendent seems to be listening to parents concerns, and actually taking action - which is something we weren't seeing with the previous dude. He is already implementing changes on the high school level that we hope will have positive effects. Oh dear... I said I wasn't going to go into it... ooops....

I'll just say that with our youngest son, we're considering moving the summer before his freshman year so that we don't have to deal with Sheldon again. (South Eugene H. S. is the better high school in Eugene.)

Anyway - I highly recommend you checking out Gilham. It has changed a bunch in the last few years, it's not as good a school as it used to be, but in Eugene it is still one of the better schools. If you can, talk to Patti in the main office when you call - she is the sweetest woman you'll ever meet and she has been at the school for eons and can answer your questions and direct you to where you need to go.

Edison and Camas Ridge are also great elementary schools in Eugene...

Camas Ridge Community School | 4J

Edison Elementary School | 4J

Gilham Elementary School

[BarbaraJB]

Haggardhouseelf (great name!) mentions problems with Sheldon. That's interesting because we're in the process of transferring our daughter out of Sheldon. She's 16, with high functioning autism. We have all really tried to make the mainstream high school thing work, but enough. We're planning to transfer her to Wellsprings Friends School or Riverfront School.

I'm really hoping to get some opinions about these schools from parents; I'd like to hear the good, bad, and ugly. The school advisors are cautioning against Wellsprings as not being rigorous enough academically (my daughter is smart, but has some cognitive/executive function/attention gaps). On the other hand, I look at the Riverfront information, and it seems focused on "teenagers in crisis", recovering from addiction, homeless youth, juvenile offenders, etc.

Can anyone help?

[Steve Pickering]

You will not be happy with either program. Stay at Sheldon. She will not do any better. Not because of her, but because the Alternitive school and the Private school programs, just don't cut it, and can not match the quality of the Public School programs.

[haggardhouseelf]

I made that post a year ago. Our family was really frustrated with Sheldon at that time. We had been frustrated during our oldest kiddo's freshman and sophomore school years at Sheldon, they were stressful years. I'm happy to say that we are slowly seeing things improve at Sheldon. This year has been much better, and some of our frustrations that we were experiencing it turns out was due to a dumb little checkbox that was checked in some database in the scheduling department that limited the class offerings that my kid was being offered. (I don't understand what happened, only that finally this year someone noticed it and unchecked it and things have been going much better ever since!)

We are glad that we "stuck it out" at Sheldon, and have kept our oldest there. Our youngest is still in middle school and will attend Sheldon when he is ready. We have friends who have kids who are freshman at Sheldon this year and they have full schedules and things have gone smoothly. I had heard that this was the plan: focus on freshman this year, next year they will focus on freshman and sophomores, the year after that freshman, sophomore, and juniors should all have full schedules, and so on...

Also, next year I think they will be implementing the new schedule which I think will make things a lot better. I'm looking forward to watching what happens... I feel that (finally) good things are on the horizon...

One word of advice, though, to any parent with a student at any of the area high schools: MAKE YOURSELF AWARE. Be there. You have to make it your job to stay on top of your kids schedule and classes and forecasting and so on, because the school is going to go through the motions and do what they think is the best they can do but with 1400+ students and just a dwindling handful of overworked staff - you do the math. They aren't magicians. So show up and talk to people and make sure to advocate for your kid. It makes a HUGE difference. The ODE website is a handy tool, too.

Also - I recommend that you go to the ODE website and look up your child's teachers. (And ask your child who is actually teaching the class!) We had an experience last year where the person who was listed on the schedule and the syllabus as being the teacher actually wasn't teaching the class. And the person actually teaching the class didn't have a teaching license. Some other parents had looked him up and found this out and that's how I found out. Then I looked up all my kids teachers and discovered another teacher with an expired license, though they were in the process of correcting that.

Anyway - I think it's really important for parents to be involved in this sort of way - making sure your kids get good classes and has a good schedule, checking out the teachers, becoming familiar with the curriculum, fighting the scheduling office so that they do not have any "free periods", etc. But it's also a balancing act because your kid needs to also become more of their own advocate as well. It's a tricky time, navigating these waters. And the schools are too busy to help you, so much of it you have to do on your own.

[Steve Pickering]

Sheldon has been the best from the day the doors first opened. I knew if you were having trouble at Sheldon, you were not going to be happy with your next choice. It's good to hear the follow-up and that you found some resolution.

[Sizzle-Chest]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

Sheldon has been the best from the day the doors first opened.

Based on what criteria?