"Special ed" vs. 1st grade classroom?

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My son's academic expectations are not lowered either. His teacher does a lot of schoolwork with him and the other 4 kids in her room.

I say keep him in regular class, pulling him out may be easier on him, but it only hurts his development. He needs to learn how to interact with other kids, and them with him, otherwise it'll make integrating him into the adult world harder. Special ED should be reserved for only the most severe of cases, kids who need help learning, not those who have trouble interacting. If the school insists, fight on his behalf, you child isn't mentally ret*d and doesn't belong in a class designed for them.

have they even discussed having an aide for him instead of totally pulling him out of "regular ed"?

At school, I was put into special ed at the beginning of each year. They didn't know about the aspergers (it was 30+ years ago) but since I had deafness, I qualified.

I'd sit in remedial English and pretend to do what they wanted to read. Eventually, I'd get bored enough that I'd produce some normal (or better than normal) quality work.

At first, the remedial (special ed) teachers would think it was a fluke. Eventually, they'd realize that I was too good for their classes and I'd be sent back to my normal class. Until the next year when the process repeated itself (often with the same remedial teacher).

While it was all good fun for me, it probably wasn't great for my education.

You need to be very careful of the "remedial effect" but there's not a lot you can do nowadays to prevent your child going into special ed. IMHO, the best thing is to get your child a tutor who has experience/interest in the asperger's condition.

While they've been checking out which of the special ed programs had openings, they've kept him in regular classes. He's still been disruptive. He does have an aide for 1/3 of the day, but it's the other 2/3 that don't work...

We still need to get a better understanding of how this program will work... it sounds like maybe it would be half and half or something.... I'm not really sure.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your insights, everyone. I will update this post as I know more... thank you so much.

Heya all - well, hubby checked out the other school, and things look really good.

It sounds like it's mostly mainstreamed, but with a full time aide, and with special classes for him and a few other kids with AS for social, OT, etc. Also, they'll be able to accelerate his math and reading studies, which he is VERY excited about - and he is excited to leave his current school, which tells me that things aren't going so well for him.... we just can't seem to get him to talk about it - my husband asks the teacher constantly but I think she is just too overwhelmed and doesn't know what's been going on.

He's also excited because they told us there's another math whiz in his special classes!

So I think this is very good, my husband observed the classroom and watched the aides move in when they needed to and so forth. It it also very heartening that my son is excited about it too.

I will keep updating, it is so great to hear all your input everyone

wow! it all sounds really great! keep us updated on how it goes.