HFA / Aspergers and High School

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Hi All,

I am a new member on this forum and am interested in getting people with teenage kids with HFA and Aspergers views on high school. In my country (Australia) there are no other schooling options other than mainstream for the kids at the higher end of the spectrum. They do have special ed units within a lot of the mainstream schools, but the kids still need to go out into the playground with all the other kids and as we all know, the playground is where a lot of these kids become unstuck and targeted by bullies!

Do you think that there should be independant high schools for kids diagnosed with HFA and Aspergers? Do you think it is discrimination that these schools are not widely available as an alternative for these kids? I am of the thinking that it is discriminatory, now that there is hard evidence that these kids brains are wired differently and they have a different learning style to their neurotypical peers. I also think it is unfair that they have to put up with high school bullying (as I think the statistics are that 90% of kids with ASD's get bullied at mainstream high schools).

I know that some countries already have these types of high schools available as an option. If your child already goes to one of these schools, how are they finding it there?

If your HFA or Aspergers child is at a mainstream high school, do you wish that you could send them to elsewhere or do you like the fact that they learn more about how to socialise in this setting?

Thanks in anticipation of your responses.

Marcy

I'm not a parent, so I can't help you. However, I must say that my high school years, were the worse years of my life, and I would have loved for there to have been a separate school, for kids with HFA and AS, for me to go to.

My high school has accomodations for students with special needs but sometimes I feel they don't go far enough. For example, I hate eating lunch in the cafeteria because of the crowds, but school rules state that everyone, except for upperclassmen who go off campus for lunch, must eat in the cafeteria; and there are no exceptions. This makes it harder for me to go someplace else for me to eat lunch because there are security guards patrolling the hallways. I have teachers nice enough to let me come into their classrooms to eat lunch, but I still hate how my school has such stringent rules.

Discriminatory is not the right word, but some sort of alternative should be available.

If this thread is directed toward parents of children with Asperger's syndrome, then it should be moved to the Parents Discussion Forum, not General Autism Discussion.

But if you want opinions from students/teens too, then I'll give you mine. I live in the United States. The high school I went to was an alternative one, and very effective all around. It tended to individual students. I went to the "mainstream" high school at the same time to take my electives. At the Alternative, I had a lot of fun and a lot of special help for my general education. It was awesome. It also helped prepare me for the "real world"--at least, the college I attend is very similar to my high school.

Anyway, I would recommend an alternative high school (like mine) for any teenager/child with Asperger's Syndrome. I did have a friend (even a date) who went to that school and had mild autism. His siblings went to that school, too. I met quite a few people with special needs that went to that school and graduated just fine. I would be pleased to share my school's web site for those interested.

Seriously--if there is any method you can use to introduce an alternative school into your area then by all means, try, try try. This wouldn't be only for students with Asperger's, though. That is unless you think there is a large population of people on the spectrum where you live. I think an alternative school is best when it's small and has a laid-back staff. Of course you want the students to be motivated, but man, my curriculum (now that I think about it) allowed me to put my talents and interests into really great projects that showed I knew the lessons. The teachers allowed many kinds of projects for all kinds of minds. The mainstream school would not let me do that! Enough about my schools.

Do you think that there should be independant high schools for kids diagnosed with HFA and Aspergers? No; I think there should be independent high schools for kids with special needs in general.
Do you think it is discrimination that these schools are not widely available as an alternative for these kids? No. I don't know what's going on in schools and government and education systems and faculty boards, but I don't think it's discrimination against kids with Asperger's syndrome. My best guesses would just be ignorance (like, some boards haven't thought of implementing alternative education systems) or lack of funding.

Special high schools for AS/HFA kids might be useful or might not, depending on how they were run; but I don't think they'd be necessary in most cases, because mainstreaming can be adjusted to get rid of the worst parts.

Sitting in a classroom is not that hard for most. What's harder are the times between classes--lunch, and in the halls between classes.

Some kids may need only permission to go to study hall or the library during lunch. Others may need some better way to get from class to class, maybe permission to wait until the halls are mostly empty to make their own transition from one class to another; or else you may need to have the class stay in either the same room or the same hall, and have the teachers move from room to room.

I was/am homeschooled for high school.

Thanks everyone for your responses so far.

As Sketches pointed out, this thread should really be in the Parent Discussion forum so I will copy it there as well, but to tell you the truth, I think hearing from people with HFA and Aspergers that have actually had to live through High School is the ultimate feedback.

I guess as I am a parent, that's why I have that angle but please keep posting your viewpoints and experiences.

Marcy