Best Long Island School Districts for Special Education (Babylon, Massapequa: legal, friendly)

[LauraJ333]

Any more feedback anyone??

[dokrent]

I am the dad of triplet boys one of whom is Autistic, high functioning but behavioral. He is going into 4th grade but is doing poorly in 3rd. He needs self contained with high functioning kids.
We are looking to move in Suffolk County and was wondering which school districts we should consider.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by dokrent

I am the dad of triplet boys one of whom is Autistic, high functioning but behavioral. He is going into 4th grade but is doing poorly in 3rd. He needs self contained with high functioning kids.
We are looking to move in Suffolk County and was wondering which school districts we should consider.

Half Hollow Hills.

[djdairyp]

I don't mean to be controversial or to suggest at all that special needs and autistic children should not be given services or accommodations, but with the 1 in 1000 statistic, autism awareness, and more parents hiring lawyers to get anything and everything possible, there needs to be some serious restructuring of how schools handle special needs cases if they increase dramatically in years to come. I know for a fact that some top school districts in long island spend hundreds of thousands a year on a single child with certain needs. A good chunk of this is in the form of salary for dedicated extra needed full time professionals and teacher overtime. Districts often comply with requests (such as a demand to get the child a prom date (true story)) because any refusal of any parent request results in lawsuit threat. The history of prior lawsuits, whether won or lost, cost the district more in time, effort and monies to handle the suit than to simply give in and settle.

Obviously there is the other side of the spectrum where some families fight and get nothing and that is not right either, but there are abuses on both sides in our political and litigious American structures.

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by dokrent

I am the dad of triplet boys one of whom is Autistic, high functioning but behavioral. He is going into 4th grade but is doing poorly in 3rd. He needs self contained with high functioning kids.
We are looking to move in Suffolk County and was wondering which school districts we should consider.

Half Hollow Hills (already mentioned) and Elwood would be good to start with. I have personal experience with both. HHH has a more established program, but Elwood is following in its footsteps. Actually, the Town of Huntington has several schools where service is good - none with bad services.

[Samalabear]

Originally Posted by dokrent

I am the dad of triplet boys one of whom is Autistic, high functioning but behavioral. He is going into 4th grade but is doing poorly in 3rd. He needs self contained with high functioning kids.
We are looking to move in Suffolk County and was wondering which school districts we should consider.

I don't know how it is now. My son is going to be 25. He had the most horrendous education in the world in Three Village. Eight placements in 12 years. It's along story and some it is in another post on this site. I don't know if things have gotten better since then. Today my son is an alcoholic, like many of his peers who went through the same system. He has Asperger's Syndrome. He was misdiagnosed several times, labeled ED in the 2nd grade. Everything was geared towards behavior (give him a reward (trinket) every time he does something good was the advice of one teacher -- talk about bad advice!!!) and nothing was done to remediate the obvious learning problems that he had. Like I said, it's a long, sad story. I don't know if he will ever be okay, but now it is, sadly, up to him. Also, this district was very good at taking services away if my son started to do well (i.e. counseling services, extra help, you name it) and I would not find out about until my son said something.

All I know is that it was 12 years of non-stop fighting with this district. It destroyed my family emotionally and financially. We have yet to recover from it in any respect.

[Maxsmom]

Originally Posted by djdairyp

i don't mean to be controversial or to suggest at all that special needs and autistic children should not be given services or accommodations, but with the 1 in 1000 statistic, autism awareness, and more parents hiring lawyers to get anything and everything possible, there needs to be some serious restructuring of how schools handle special needs cases if they increase dramatically in years to come. I know for a fact that some top school districts in long island spend hundreds of thousands a year on a single child with certain needs. A good chunk of this is in the form of salary for dedicated extra needed full time professionals and teacher overtime. Districts often comply with requests (such as a demand to get the child a prom date (true story)) because any refusal of any parent request results in lawsuit threat. The history of prior lawsuits, whether won or lost, cost the district more in time, effort and monies to handle the suit than to simply give in and settle.

Obviously there is the other side of the spectrum where some families fight and get nothing and that is not right either, but there are abuses on both sides in our political and litigious american structures.

walk a day in our shoes and you might not be such a witch.

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by djdairyp

Obviously there is the other side of the spectrum where some families fight and get nothing and that is not right either, but there are abuses on both sides in our political and litigious American structures.

So if there are abuses, that means "let's do away with the program(s)"??

Is that your opinion only when it comes to autism related expenses/abuses or in general? If that is in general, there'd be an uprising the likes of which we haven't seen. If it's specific, it's discriminatory - your choice!

[djdairyp]

Originally Posted by Elke Mariotti

So if there are abuses, that means "let's do away with the program(s)"??

Is that your opinion only when it comes to autism related expenses/abuses or in general? If that is in general, there'd be an uprising the likes of which we haven't seen. If it's specific, it's discriminatory - your choice!

Where did I say do away with the programs? I said they might need some restructuring to be sustainable.

Why is it that people directly involved in a situation such as Maxsmom can not look objectively at potential issues but read with blinders on, miss the forest for the trees, and any hint of dissent means they call you a witch.

People act like schools toss their kids on the street when they need services when the reality is if you compare the changes that have taken place over the last 10-20 years the services offered have ballooned. There is a breaking point somewhere, you can't have 25% of your school on special programs and expect to stay aflot and continue to get state funding as well. Like I said in my original post, some restructuring could possibly be needed in that scenario

[Maxsmom]

Originally Posted by djdairyp

Where did I say do away with the programs? I said they might need some restructuring to be sustainable.

Why is it that people directly involved in a situation such as Maxsmom can not look objectively at potential issues but read with blinders on, miss the forest for the trees, and any hint of dissent means they call you a witch.

People act like schools toss their kids on the street when they need services when the reality is if you compare the changes that have taken place over the last 10-20 years the services offered have ballooned. There is a breaking point somewhere, you can't have 25% of your school on special programs and expect to stay aflot and continue to get state funding as well. Like I said in my original post, some restructuring could possibly be needed in that scenario

Don't want to hear about it "w"itch. As I said, walk a day in our shoes. We are not fighting because our children have a lisp. Perhaps we should consider cutting band uniforms or football programs. WOn't your Johnny be sad.