Community classes for AS

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The school has approached me about the idea of moving DS to an AS community class and I'm wondering if anyone on here has had any experience with something similar. DS can't function without the support from an EA. But in September will find out from the school board how much EA support he's entitled to (if any) and that's a big gamble. They could give him anywhere from 25% to 100% but getting full support seems unlikely. It would be a complete disaster if he got any less than 100%. As it stands now, he can only attend school for the morning because that's the only time he has EA support.

I've been told that the community class is reverse integration. So the class size is small (less than 9 children), tons of support from people who know their stuff when it comes to dealing with AS kids. THey work on academics and behavioural issues in the class. Then when the student gets a hand on their behavioural/social issues, they slowly introduce them to a mainstream class. So, say they start with going to a regular class (with support) for math. That ends up being successful, so they add math and science outside of class etc. Seems to make much more sense to do it that way versus forcing the child to adapt to mainstream for the majority of their day with little pull out support.

AS community classes are rare around here. I have no idea about a wait list yet. Still waiting to hear back from the school about it. Has anyone had any experiences with AS comm classes?

my son is in a somewhat similiar program...he started out the year totally non-inclusive. now he's in 2 mainstreamed classes, and they are talking about continuing to mainstream him through next year. the plan is (hopefully) that he'll be fully mainstreamed by the end of the year. the smaller program and more individualized attention has helped my son to learn to cope better. he's had some rocky days in the mainstreamed classes, but has gotten past that. the school itself is very cautious about mainstreaming kids, and will only do so if they feel that there is little chance of failure for the kid.( by failure, i mean, behaviorally)

That is so good to hear!! I'm feeling encouraged by it and at this point I want to put him in, but it may not be up to me if there's a wait list, although I'll add his name anyway because you never know how quickly they might get in. I just hate the thought of changing schools after the year has started. He already had to do that last year.

change is often difficult. my son didn't want to go to the new school~said he'd do whatever it took to get suspended....we stood our ground because we knew it was what was best for him. it was a bit tenuous at first~not knowing whether or not the district would actually approve sending him there ( it's quite pricey). the improvement in his attitude has been just so tremendous~ at the big school he used to come home every day agitated and ready to fight, punch holes in the wall, slam things.....now, i'm not saying that he doesn't ever have days like these anymore, but i honestly can't remember the last day that he did have a day like this. he is much calmer and truly seems happier.

I'm so happy to hear that the switch has worked out for you guys. We still don't have the report from the hospital so I can't go any further right now. The board won't release any info about community classes to me until they have it. I left a msg for the doctor asking her to write an informal note confirming that he has AS and that a report will follow so that I can at least get the info and see a class in session before school is out for the year (last day is the 29th) but she hasn't returned my calls.

I was talking to DS therapist and another option is to have him go back to this school in the fall (hopefully with EA support) and then if he moves to a community class at another school, the autism team can come in and help him with transistion which sounds like a better deal.

I don't want to find out the week before school starts in the fall that all of a sudden he's going some place new when he didn't get a chance to say goodbye to his friends/teachers at his old school, kwim?

we, too, had hoped to have answers before the last school year was out about son's placement....unfortunately, things weren't finalized until the end of Sept. ! fortunately, hubby was able to stay home with son until school began. they ( the district) offered little help transitioning son to new school