Any parents with children in Special Education?

[Not only rude,but ugly to]

Hey there,

I have two children that are both "special needs" we live in clay county. We are very lucky to have some of the best teachers and helpers in the world here.


We were in Duval and well, My mother always told me if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. So that's what I will go with here :-)

What I would do, if you can at all, Is pick out a few areas that are going to work for your family as far as home price, travel time, so forth and so on, then call the school board for that county (clay, duval) and find out which school your child would be placed in according to his IEP stats. And find out about a visit to that school and meet the teachers find out how he/she does things, find out if they offer the speech, vision, etc.. in school that your child my need. Plus with doing this you are able to get a better feel for things and will not feel "stuck".This would be my best over all info to do and yes I know this is just common info, but with "special needs" sometimes the local school(s) for the area will not have the classes needed and the school that would fit your child's needs would be 2 schools boundaries over from your local one.
I wish you luck on your move :-) and keep us updated on what you find out.

[rastagal77]

Great advice. It seems to work a little differently in FL than it does here. All of the schools here in Arlington have a special education "teacher" and speech and ot therapist at the school...not sure if this is the case down there. My son is in a regular 1st grade classroom with an hour of time set aside each day where the special ed teacher spends time in his classroom with him (so they say). He doesn't even know her name and we are half way through the school year which leads me to believe there is not much interaction between them..according to him the only time he sees her is when he gets upset in the classroom and has to leave and go to her office to basically sit in time out(sigh)

He has had a tough year at this school, a lot of the kids there tease him which makes him upset (sensory issues) and he takes it very personaly and in turn he gets in trouble for sticking up for himself..which he knows it's not Ok to hit or push other kids but it does happen on occasion and I just don't think they deal with it in a constructive manner.

This is the reason I am trying to find the best school possible because I don't want him to have to go through another year like this one. He has always loved school, but this year I have definitely seen a decline regarding his interest in schoolwork. I know it's virtually impossible to judge a school until your child has actually started going there and you see how the staff works together. There is also no way to predict what kind of children your child will have in his class..last year was great and his peers were very sweet and accepting, this year not so much. I feel it is my job as his parent to do the best I can so he get's the most out of his education and enjoys going to school and learning...

Thanks for listening to my rambling AND for all the advice, I really appreciate it!

[ilian99]

what Middle school is he going to when he finish elementary , I am looking a good middle school for my daughter with IEP and asperger syndrome . thank you