Looking for High School education tuition assist resources

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Hello,

This is my first post and visit to “wrongplanet”. We just found out about it from a family member who was watching ABC’s “The View” and the site was listed. I am impressed with the exchange of information and support this site offers.

Onto our post, my wife and I have a 15 year old son who was diagnosed with AS almost 13 years ago. We lived in a small town (pop. 800) in northern NH. Once our son started public school it was quickly apparent that this environment was not "least restrictive" for him. After 2 years of struggling to meet his needs the school system finally agreed to fund an out-of-state placement. They did this for 2 years as long as we agreed to have one parent live in town and one live with our son 350 miles away. We did this for the two years but it was tearing the family apart so we moved to RI to continue our son's placement on our own.

"We" have since outgrown our school. Our son graduates to High School this spring and we have started researching private schools. We receive no assistance from the local public school system (we spent $60k+ fighting them to maintain his current placement - and lost) other than bussing. They contend that they can provide an "adequate" environment while we contend that the programming they have shown us is wrought with failure. I'm sure many of you have heard/experienced this yourselves.

Anyway, is there a resource out there that could point us to special funding/foundations that assist families with payment of high school tuition? I see plenty of Secondary foundations/grants/scholarships etc. but nothing for high school. We understand it is ultimately our decision to send our son to a private school specializing in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and learning difficulties but at $30k + (and that is the cheapest we've come across) we could use some assistance. We’ve already spent nearly $200k on his elementary education alone and we are tapped out.

I apologize if this is whining, I know how fortunate we are that we have come this far, and we are not groveling for free money but any leads to known resources that are set up for assistance would be much appreciated.

around here, it's either you pay out of pocket or get the district to foot the bill. wish i had better news.

Ohio just started a scholarship called " The Ohio Autism Scholarship" It will pay up to 20,000 a year for education,ST,OT and PT. It started a year 1/2 ago but no one was certified around me until Oct. It was very easy, just filled out paperwork and sent it in to the state educational dept. My son started a private school in Dec. 2006. The only place certified for the scholarship around me as of now. He is doing much better, stress level has come down. They give him 1 one 1 due to him being so far behind.
He already went to OT outside the school and his private school doesn't offer OT. Therefor, since OT is in his IEP I have to make sure he gets it else where. Which is not an issue since he has been getting OT through outside resource since age 3. I don't know if other states are doing this but it might be worth checking into. If your state doesn't offer it maybe soon they will.

That sounds terrific - I think you'll find that not many states willingly sponsor such educations. We can't even get our town to reimburse us what they would have to spend on our son if he attended the public school without services. It is published in our town paper that the school district spends $14,000 per regular ed. student but will not kick in a dime since we've made a unilateral placement.

Thanks for the information. Once our son is out of the education process I am hoping to be able to set up some type of situation where we could donate a portion of our earnings for such a program.

Thanks again and good luck with the placement. We found the right school and our son has flourished.

Dave

In my town there's an alternative high school run by the public school district, I know a few people that went there because the regular high school didn't work out for them. Perhaps there's something like that in your area.