Clayton or Ladue schools for special needs? (St. Louis, Columbia: house, transferring to)

[chicagoerin]

Help! My sister just sold her house in Columbia, Illiniois to move to the best possible school district for my nephew who has sensory integration disorder. In short, he will need to be in smaller classrooms with the potential for great special education, should he need it. He will be in Kindergarten this year. Does anyone have any first hand experience with Clayton versus Ladue schools? He might not need special ed at all but will need smaller, controlled class rooms and teachers who are patient and understand of his needs.
Thanks,
Erin

[TGS]

Your sister should have him evaluated by the school district before she moves. It may well be that Columbia can offer the same services as Clayton or Ladue. If she had an IEP for her son she could get specific information about services from the administrators in the districts and compare information. She might want to also call up the Kirkwood, Webster, Parkway, Rockwood, Brentwood, etc. school districts and see what services they offer. Clayton and Ladue are certainly the best for educating the regular students, but there may be other districts that are better suited to accommodate your nephew.

If she can afford Clayton or Ladue, she should also look into the specialized private schools. I know of a kid with behavioral disorders that struggled in Clayton even with psychiatric care and lot of medications, but after transferring to a much smaller private school, has flourished and is mainstreamed into a regular classroom with much smaller amounts of medications. Large public schools can be quite challenging for kids with sensory disorders.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

My Mom has been researching this (she is a special education teacher), and suggested checking out Sensory Processing Disorder they have some info about helping kids solve problems at school and some other info. It may be info you already have, but I thought I'd give it to you anyway.

Good luck with your nephew!

[chicagoerin]

Thanks for the responses! Yes, they have already had him evaluated by the Columbia school district. It was a pretty unimpressive experience. They just don't have the funding that some of more "high end" areas have. Thanks for the tip on the Sensory Disorder group. Will check it out!

[stepka]

Erin, If your child needs special ed services, it won't matter much which school district you choose, because the special school district in St. Louis will work with him thru any of the schools. Brentwood schools have small class sizes--maybe 50-70 per grade.