Today, when I took R. to school, guess what...another substitute. This one had never seen R., had no notes from the teacher about R., nothing. I was not about to leave R. in the classroom with someone who didn't know anything about how to deal with him, so I went down to the office and found the school counselor. In the middle of our conversation, the school OT called me on my cell phone, and I went out in the hallway to take her call. It turns out that she wasn't exactly happy with the way the autism specialist was handling R's case, and she (the school OT) advised me to call an IEP meeting ASAP and get everyone there (of course, I was already on my way to do that, but had been waiting for the autism specialist's report). The school OT voiced her worry that we were losing R. academically, and that we needed to figure out what he needed in order to have success in this realm. Of course, I mentioned that what he needs is a one-on-one aide. She stated (yet again...I've heard this from so many people now) that they are moving away from the one-on-one aide model. The next time someone says that, my response will be, "Then, what are you moving toward?" I have still not had that question answered.
Anyway, by the time I had gotten off the phone with her, someone from the office had told me that R. was going to be with his old Resource teacher today (this is someone who R. loves...she is fabulous with him and I'm so sad that she's no longer his teacher...she is assigned K-2 only). I went up to her room to check on R. before I left and found him with the biggest smile on his face helping her out with a group of kindergarteners. Oh, and she said he'd already finished his math work for the day. Bravo
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We are in jeopardy of losing Owen's aide, as a six week contract was signed and focused only on the transition from preschool to Kindergarten. His aide is the only person I trust at the moment to give me the whole story- when and if she leaves we will be at the school's mercy and operating in the dark.
It sounds like you have some folks at school who are keeping you in the loop and have your son's best interests at heart. Good luck with your meeting- I hope you find the supports you need.
Thanks for your comment, Tara. As you can see, things have taken a different turn...I am frustrated with the lack of communication at R's school between his classroom teacher, resource teacher, the prinicipal, etc. I hope that you get to keep Owen's aide...R has never had an aide dedicated solely to him, and I would love that. I hope that you find someone else at the school to serve as that "helpful person" if the aide goes away. Hang in there!
interesting. Tristan has a one on one aide. He had one leave last year, I think they eliminated his position, but he still has one person that primarily deals with him (there are multiple adults in his class). I don't get a whole lot of info, but my guess is the new person is probably a little less trained and therefore less expensive. Either that or there's one less person in the room but someone's still with him and the other kids get a little less one on one. I do miss the initial aide, as I got an update any time I came into the school.
qualifications, however, aren't as important to me, as long as the person works well with tristan. His daycare is naeyc accredited, keeps a copy of his IEP, communicates with his school and hires a college student to work with him (primarily because they need an extra person in the classroom to keep track of him) - amazingly, I'm not charged extra for any of this. Anyway, there's this one girl that was with him all summer and is with him 3 days a week this fall, who he has responded really well to. He'd gone to a different school in the summer, and his main school says he's improved much since last school year. I don't know for sure if it was the schooling over the summer, or his new aid, or a combo of both.
Hopefully the school does realize he needs someone, though it is a bit difficult for the older classrooms. try and get someone other than yourself to recommend it in the iep. His teacher last year made a point of recommending it in Tristan's first, and so it was done. Maybe this person can be there for the whole classroom, but work primarily for your son, so they are a little more open to it
my eldest goes to a district where for the most part there's a parapro in every classroom so maybe this will be less of a leap than a one on one aide - the other children need to learn how to deal with him, too - that is one thing that made me feel so much better about my daughter's school - her current teacher gave me the first detailed picture of her issues in the classroom and I was concerned on how she was affecting the other students (she has a very dominant personality) and her teacher reassured me it was a good learning experience for all of them - but maybe that's because its montessori, which teaches children to solve problems contructively themselves (I'm guessing montessori programs, however would provide way too much stimulation for a typical spectrum kid but I've seen other traditional schools incorporate some of the philosophies).
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