Quote:
Originally Posted by denmak
Good morning,
My family and I are scheduled to relocate from Tokyo, Japan to NY around April - Jun '08. My younger son, aged 3 years and 4 months, is mildly autistic [diagnosed with PDD-NOS or atypical autism]
We are considering Rockland or Orange Counties as our first choices of residence. I'm aware that all public schools are required to accept kids with special needs but wanted to be sure of choosing a good location for him. Some open-ended questions coming to mind are:
1- In general, how responsive are public schools to the needs of kids with special requirements?
2- Is there anything I need to be particularly aware of e.g. state requirements for admitting my son in the public school?
3- Are there other locations in NY e.g. Long Island or Westchester County that could be considered to be potentially a better alternative?
4- Is there anything I could do to get a headstart with formalities prior to the relocation?
I'd deeply appreciate any responses - thank you for your time and patience.
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denmak-
Ok, sorry it took me so long to get a response back out to you, but I was playing phone tag for the last week with someone with a lot of answers for you. So for the answers....
1. The schools are very responsive to children with special requirements, in fact they are required by NYS law to be responsive. Everyone I spoke to (about 4-5 people) stated that how responsive to your childs needs they are depends on where you go.
2. There are a lot of specific requirements and they differ depending on what you are looking for. What everyone I spoke to said is that it would be best for you to make sure you bring a COMPLETE EVALUATION WITH RECOMMENDATIONS as to what your doctors are recommending (eg. speech therapy 1 time a week, twice a week, etc etc) and an INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION PLAN. They will still do an re-evaluation once you get here but from what I gather, if your child is already on a specific program they tend to try to keep with that for the most part.
3. I couldn't tell you if Long Island or Westchester would be a better alternative, but I do know that dollar for dollar, you will get a better quality of life in Orange County than you would in say Westchester or Long Island just based on home prices and taxes, but that's just my personal opinion.
4. In order to try and get a head start, I would recommend you doing several different things, as you will be able to get more specific info this way, vice getting it second hand from me. First, go to the
NY VESID Autism Website as they have a wealth of knowledge there and they have several links that tell you what is available. Also, check out the
Orange County Mental Health Association as they have a support group (which a good friend of mine said from personal experience is great) for parents of autistic children that meets once a week (I will PM you with a good contact with who runs the support group). Lastly, check out the
NY State Education Department as they have a lot of information that will help you there as well.
Everyone I spoke to said that each specific situation is different, and each parent has different views on each of the local school districts' Special Education department because of what each parent views their childs needs are. The one common thing each person stated was that as long as the parents stay involved with the childs education and needs that most of the school districts are very good. They also mentioned that with your specific situation, you would probably want to stay away from Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and Middletown School districts. As a Realtor I can't specifically guide you to a school district, but I can say that several people said that Monroe-Woodbury and Warwick in Orange County as well as Valley Cottage in Rockland County would be good places to start.
As I said, I will PM you with some names and contacts of direct peopl where you can probably get some more detailed info and get specific questions answered.
Let me know if this helps at all.
Best of luck,
~Joey
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