Best Long Island School Districts for Special Education (New York, Islip: health, autistic)

[sgtgeorge]

East Meadow School District

[sgtgeorge]

Intergrated is 1/2 with special needs and 1/2 who are typically developing.

[mommytochris]

Originally Posted by sgtgeorge

East Meadow School District

what about East Meadow?

[sgtgeorge]

bluu2000,

My IEP meeting went excellent. My husband and I did not have to say a word. They read through my son's evaluation and its was clear that there was problem that needed addressing. We couldn't have asked for better results. Just remember, these services are a "right" not a "privilege" for these children. A couple of schools you might consider . . . Marcus Avenue Leeds Program in Manhasset, Barbara C. Wilson in Woodbury and Little Village in Seaford.

[iluvmycuties]

Originally Posted by mommytochris

I have not had that experience. My son's district placement was more like that. In my situation the principal at my son's school seems to have a lot of input on the class groupings. So he definitely fills classes with children who have similar issues but contrasts it with those who balance each other. For example my son is extremely overwhelming to other children sometimes. BUT that can be used to bring another child out of his/her shell while teaching my son to be less impulsive. If he is grouped with a child with severe sendory issues like his last placement the class is a nightmare for him with both children setting each other off.

With that said I don't disgree with your opinion since this exact thing was what we dealt with in district. My advice to any parent is to tour and go with your gut. Request a profile of the class you are considering. It will show you the children, their disabilities and the IQs of who will be in the class with your child of course minus the identifying/personal specifics for confidentiality. So at least you will know if the placement is appropriate.

Like I stated, I do not wish to take away from any parent who is happy with the program. I'm glad that your child is doing well.

I was saying that while there ARE definitely classes, and some Early Childhood programs, that are comprised of similar diagnoses (which your child seems to be in, luckily), on the whole that is not the case with BOCES. There are not a lot of similarities between someone with down syndrome, someone with ADHD, and someone with Muscular Dystrophy. What they had in common were their ages. I think what I did fail to mention was that these classes were on the secondary level.

In the end, I completely agree with you...it is up to the parent to do the research, to tour the facilities, to ask every little question, even if it annoys the education professionals. It seemed that the parents who were the "least popular" were the ones getting the best placement for their children.

[mommytochris]

Originally Posted by iluvmycuties

Like I stated, I do not wish to take away from any parent who is happy with the program. I'm glad that your child is doing well.

I was saying that while there ARE definitely classes, and some Early Childhood programs, that are comprised of similar diagnoses (which your child seems to be in, luckily), on the whole that is not the case with BOCES. There are not a lot of similarities between someone with down syndrome, someone with ADHD, and someone with Muscular Dystrophy. What they had in common were their ages. I think what I did fail to mention was that these classes were on the secondary level.

In the end, I completely agree with you...it is up to the parent to do the research, to tour the facilities, to ask every little question, even if it annoys the education professionals. It seemed that the parents who were the "least popular" were the ones getting the best placement for their children.

Yeah I am not popular LOL but it depends on who you ask LOL.

What you are mentioning is a big problem. Grouping some children together without taking the nature of their disability into consideration can make a classroom a nightmare. My son is very overwhelming to a child with a sensory issue but cannot understand why that child won't interact with him so it gets messy. It makes a classroom more of a daycare than a learning environment.

[teacherktee]

Originally Posted by sharon s

I have also heard that Lawrence is an excellent district for children on the spectrum.Do you know if they take kids from other districts?I know alot of kids in that district go to private school.Any info would be very helpful.

We do take children from other districts. Next school year it is anticipated that I will have 3 of my 5 students from out of district. That being said, the 5 towns isn't terrible easy to get to, so you have to weigh out the length of the bus ride time for you child if considering our program.

A lot of our general education students do attend private school, HOWEVER, the private religious schools do not offer special education services, so if a child is diagnosed they typically remain with us. This is most likely why the district and board of education invests a significant amount of resources in the improvement of our special education services.

hope this helps!

[Sandyusa]

i have been lucky with lindenhurst. it depends on what you are looking for. west gates is an elementary school that is completely inclusion. the whole school is inclusion taking away the stigma and the staff is amazing. alleghany is okay. i am not thrilled with the speech department but they have a self contained but they transfer the kids to a different school once they reach 3rd grade which i disagree with. daniel street elementary has what is considered a great autism program but i have heard mixed things. some parents love it some hate it. as far as other districts besides lindenhurst, i have heard good things about west babylon. i wish you lots of luck. its hard trying to make these decisions.

[determinedmom]

You are so right about West Islip. I give them them a 3 on the scale. We bought a house here because the district has an excellent reputation, but that apparently does not include special needs children. My son is in kindergarten (has PDD-NOS) and we have not been told how he is doing, what he is working on or what we can do at home to help him progress except at the standered parent teacher meetings - "there have been two all year". They seem to think this is acceptable and I don't. They won't provide 1-1 speech (only class speech and a 1-5 group for 30 mins), he has "not progressing" in every area of his report card for behavior and conduct that promotes learning - yet at his CSE meeting when we asked for a behavior plan they said he's doing just fine!! The speech teacher wouldn't give my advocate a crumb of information on what she does in class and the principal looked angry that we were asking his staff questions.

The school conducted an evaluation test prior to the CSE meeting which says my son has: "poor" eye contact, concentration, sequencing skills, major auditory processing issues, hyper behavior issues, Wh question issues, little abstract skills, can't preform 2 step directions and is not descriptive with his language. We ask for services based on their testing and suddenly he's not doing as poorly as thier own tests indicate. Don't move to West Islip if you have a special needs child. It's pretty said when your advocate tells you, "you might want to think about moving to another district". He said they don't know what they are doing nor do they know what they are talking about - and he's right! We are definately going to think about moving.

[boodymom]

Does anybody have any input on the school districts on the North Fork of LI. I feel just because I live "all the way out here" my son will not be receiving services that he needs. Thank you