Special Education and What Happens Long Term

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Hi All,

My 11 y/o son has AS and ADHD. We held him back in the first grade due to grades, but mostly because he was not mature enough or emotionally ready enough to be promoted to second grade. Right now we are wrapping up the fourth grade, and we did he annual assessment for IEP for next year this morning. The Vice Principal advised me that my son will have to take the fifth grade TAKS test next year and pass it in order to be promoted to the sixth grade. He has never been required to take the TAKS test before due to his learning disabilities, but the Texas legislature has changed the rules and now he will be required to take it. Currently, his reading and writing are at a third grade level and his math is at a beginning fourth grade level. If he does not pass the fifth grade TAKS test, it is likely that he will be held back (apparently there are some loop holes though).

So here are my questions. I would appreciate any insight or information you all have.

How on earth do they expect him to pass a fifth grade TAKS test if he is only reading and writing at a third grade level?

If they hold him back for a second time, he would graduate from high school when he is 20 y/o. I don't know of anyone who went to my school and graduated at the age of 20. Does this really happen?

What really happens with kids who have been in the special education program all their childhood? Do they learn to over come their learning issues and become independent, self-sustaining adults?

Do any of you have any personal stories with regard to this type of educational issue, and, if so, would you please share them with me?

I really don't know what to expect. I know that everyone is different and everyone has a different educational experience. My son is very high functioning AS, and is very intelligent. He has an extremely hard time with impulse control and staying focused. I am very worried about his future and how he will be able to support himself as an adult. I know it may seem a little early to some to be worrying about these things, but time is so swift, and I don't want to miss any opportunity to help him be successful in life.

Thanks for all your replies.

I am not in Texas, (Ontario) and things are not the exact same. The standardized tests are used to gauge progress, but not final marks or for advancement to the next level. I think you need to really investigate this where you are, I can't see how he can take these tests and not be full of panic knowing what is at stake and such, is he even going to perform to the best of his ability?

Holding him back for two years just seems unacceptable to me! My son is a year behind too, (12) and has been struggling, has an IEP for math and language arts, LA is at a 4th grade level, math is now a 4/5, up from the 2/3 at the beginning of the year! (yay!) He is in grade 6 now, 7 next year.

However, you better believe if they are holding your son back, that more kids are held back too, graduating at 20 is probably going to be much more common then it was back in your day! I just can't help but think for the social end of things, he should be put ahead, even if he is IEP'ed for accomidated lower grade work. How does he do in other subjects like science or history? Being held back again would be a huge blow to him! I would be demanding answers as to what can be done to avoid this, what extra help is the school board or government going to offer to see him pass next years tests IF he does indeed have to take them!

If it helps, I graduated from Highschool at 20! I dropped out for a year and a half in highschool, (long story) I went back and graduated, I did a year and a 1/2 in a regular school, then switched over to adult ed which I loved. Afterwards I went to 2 years of college, did really well! It is not a foot race, I would be more concerned with the quality of the education he is recieving and not the speed in which he gets it! They are already talking about putting my son into a highschool for teens who don't do well in a regualar school, it is a school to work program, it does not prepare them for post secondary school, it is a dumping ground! I told them over my dead body! I don't care if it takes him an extra couple years to get through highschool, maybe he needs a lightened course work, and extended timeframe but he CAN do a regular program, I know he has it in him! At least we have 2 years before that happens...

I have to say I am in the UK and do not know the American education system also this happend to me a long time ago (1968)
I was moved out of mainstream education at the age of 11. The School I attended had a very mixed bag of boys with all kinds of social and emotional problems now I look back some of us were quite clearly AS and or ADD although I was not inquisitive about my diagnosis then and in those days I would not have been told. About the only common factor between us was high intelegence.
Although the bullying was as bad until my final years I did learn considerable social skills (by aspie standards) and learnt a trade, had I remained another year I would have left with a full Electricians certificate (I left to start an apprenticeship age 17) I did learn a strong work ethic and although my life has had a fair few ups and downs had I not gone there I would doubt I could have left school as a functioning individual.
They were also invaluable to me in later years when I was in need of help.
Despite having very few happy memories of those days I am a little sad to know the school no longer exists.

I'm not from Texas, so unfortunately I'm not familiar with the TAKS test...I would think that your son would be entitled to special accomodations though. My youngest sister has PDD/NOS, and she has always struggled with standardized tests, but she has been allowed extra time and modified test questions. She is a junior in high school now and has just been approved for 50% extra time on the SAT. She also started school a year late, and will be 19 1/2 when she graduates. It's not so uncommon anymore.

I hope your son's school will be understanding about the provisions that he needs!

This is all really new. He has always taken some sort of standardized test, but because of his learning disabilities and his IEP, the testing does not count the same as it would for a child without disabilities. He is always nervous during testing. However, he has been able to manage it because he knows that if he tanks it, it won't cause him to be held back. Now with the changes, I don't know how he will handle it. He always freaks out when there is some huge about to happen.



I guess I can see that happening. It seems like there are more and more kids being held back these days. When I was in school I only knew one or two students who were held back. There was a huge stigma associated with that, but today it's so common.



He has a rough time with certain aspects of science and history. However, the school has alway been very accommodating in giving him extra time. At the ARD meeting today, I requested that he be issued two sets of text books next year: one set to be kept at school and one set to be kept at home. He has a difficult time remembering to bring his books home when he needs to study for a test, so I thought this might be a good solution. I believed that they would have accommodated my request, except that Texas is experiencing a text book shortage. Instead of purchasing more, they make the kids share books. The Vice Principal did say that she would see what she could do and that if she did have extra books, she would make sure my son would receive an extra one, but that it would have to be on the understanding that if they needed it back during the year I would send it back.



I agree! The self esteem he does have would fly out the window! The only extra help that I know of is that he would have to go to summer school. He freaks at the idea of going to summer school (of course, who wouldn't). Plus, he is required to visit his bio-father for six weeks during the summer. My son adores his father. He would be devastated if he didn't get to go see him.



Thank you for sharing your story. I'm really worried about how all of this is going to turn out. Our kids have so many challenges these days. I want to help him, but I also want him to learn to become independent.

Thanks for your reply iceb. It sounds like you had a really good experience with a school to work like program. That's another thing I think about. My son is very intelligent, but his grades suffer do to inability to focus for very long. I would like for him to go to a regular college in the future, but then I wonder if he would be able to handle it. I know it's to early to tell because he is only 11, but I still think about it.

I wonder how many people with AS go to college vs. trade school?

I was told that they have four versions of the TAKS test, but that only a certain percentage of kids per school can take the modified versions of the test. For example, only 2% of the student populous can take the modified version, and only 1% can take the easiest version, but that is for children who are severely low functioning.

So far everyone at my son's school has been great. Our family is really fortunate. I have read so many stories of how other people have had to fight every day to get only substandard modifications. I feel horrible for the people who are in that situation.

I would fight to see if he can take the easiest tests, if he has to pass, then let him pass at the most basic level. Try and get rather forceful with your wording of things, like if they say there is a text book shortage, ask "and how is that my sons problem?" If you get no where, see if you can get the whole unit photocopied and sent home!

I was struggling with my son getting him up and writting at all, his spelling is terrible, his sentence structure and organization is terrible, he was writting at maybe a grade 2 level independantly. I knew he could do better. So I DEMANDED samples of work to show him, thinking that if I could show him what the expectation was, and HOW to write like in the examples, then he would learn! After a month of DEMANDING, I was finally sent home a book! It was a wonderful book, called "write on track" and it had all the different styles of writting for a grade 5/6 level, with examples. It was the teachers personal and only copy! I promtly brought it to a Staples and photocopied the whole thing! It has changed HOW he writes, I am so proud of him!

I wrote a whole bunch of info you may find helpful on another thread, I strongly suggest you have a look at it! Although it is a bit of a novel. It is about organization and studying and all that sort of stuff!

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... ic&t=33215

Also, I would strongly suggest you look into a couple computer programs, see if the school even will pay for them. One is a word prediction program called WordQ. It is wonderful, although we are on the last day of our free trial and are now at the schools mercy as it costs over $400 cdn to buy it!

WordQ also has a sister program called "SpeakQ" which is a voice recognition software, it is also very fabulous, although to my knowledge it does not run on Vista yet, so we where not able to use it for more then a couple days on grandmas computer. These programs can take as lot of the stress off a struggling Language arts student and help bridge the gap, allowing them to worry about sentence structure more then the physical process of writing and spelling!

The other program we love is called "inspiratons". It is a fabulous mapping program that can also be used as a daily organizer. it adds a great organizational and pictoral element to assignments, and best of all, it is not very expensive. Again the school may be able to buy it for you. www.inspirations.com has a full trail version, although it is not full sized on the screen!

Best of luck, don't let them flunk your son out! Scream as loud as you can before that happens, don't worry about being "nice" or "likable".

Thanks, I appreciate the information you have posted. I will check it all out.

How on earth do they expect him to pass a fifth grade TAKS test if he is only reading and writing at a third grade level?

Im in the UK, I imagine though that its an undersight and you should contact whoever the TAKS test is run by and fight your case ( soryr I know not much about these tests)

If they hold him back for a second time, he would graduate from high school when he is 20 y/o. I don't know of anyone who went to my school and graduated at the age of 20. Does this really happen? This is a american thing but handg on in the ukk kids can leave school at `16 and can do other education from then on, many leave it latter others like me left at 16 and went to carry on our education thus in the american system it would appear in my case that Id graduate at 21, so I think that all it is that in the USA education is structured difrently I dont think you should woryr about it because why does it atter how old you are when you gdaute hat dffrences doe sit actulal make? in terms of gettinga job etc nones gonna say oohh sorry you left high school aged 20 you cant ahve a job with us, people are emplyed on wheather they can do the job or not.
If your worried about personal devloment peopel devlop wherever they are.

What really happens with kids who have been in the special education program all their childhood? Do they learn to over come their learning issues and become independent, self-sustaining adults?
Well this depends on the person not what education theyve had. Im sucessful went through mostly special ed but cant do math or spell ( as you can see) Im succesfful I tecah people about AS.

Do any of you have any personal stories with regard to this type of educational issue, and, if so, would you please share them with me?
I dindt finsih high school went straight to college ( in the uk its what you do instaed of school betwen the ages of 16-18 before university), I was held backa year in primary school when I aws 11. I am strating university in septmber I run a business doing training for teachers and tarinee teachers, Ive had ana rticle published made an awrness film and am in the process of maing a resourdce pack for students with ASD's who want to go to university, which features a year long video diary in 93 minutes.

I really don't know what to expect. I know that everyone is different and everyone has a different educational experience. My son is very high functioning AS, and is very intelligent. He has an extremely hard time with impulse control and staying focused. I am very worried about his future and how he will be able to support himself as an adult. I know it may seem a little early to some to be worrying about these things, but time is so swift, and I don't want to miss any opportunity to help him be successful in life.
Iys not in my opnion from talking to aparents and educators too early, sounds like if you put the work in and the school does too your son could be just like evryone else.
hope this helps

I missed this question.

I really think it depends on the child, it is different from one to the other. some will overcome their problems completely, others will not, but they will learn how to adapt to their issues to get by in this world. Similar to Hop A long, I can't spell, but I was accepted to a university (years ago), and plan to actually go in a few years! (I will be 32!) In the 1960's, this would have barred me from being able to go, but with todays computer world, I should be just fine!

For other kids, it means that they do need a few more years prior to graduation. For a multitude of reasons, they just don't learn everything that the regular kids to at the same pace. Does not mean they are "slow" just that learning some acedemic subjects is more challenging and they need some extra time. This also happens if kids have a traumatic experiance or a sustained illness, it does not take much to throw a child out of the regular track these days.

I know my son is going to need a year or more to graduate from highschool, I don't expect him to graduate before 20. Although he may surprise me yet! I think he is going to need a lightened coursework, perhaps 75% of the regular, although he can make up a credit over summer, that would put him only a 1/2 year behind!

The thing is, I don't think they should be held back more then once before highschool. It is just too difficult to have a 13 year old child sitting in an 11 year old class. By highschool, this is not as big a problem, and many children do for a variety of reasons in Ontario end up in classes for students that a re younger then themselves. Lets just say they did not pass math, or they hated science and ditched the class! Then they have to repeat it. You also start getting into some drop out situations where the kids come back to recover the course. Then ofcourse you have those who just plain arrived late like my son will! We also have adult schools and online courses, so if by 18 a child does not want to be in the "mainstream" with younger peers, they have alternatives that provide the same quality of education.

Anyway, I would fight to get him to the next grade, it is one thing to be held back because you don't acedemically cut it, I sort of agree with that, but you have to consider the emotional side of things too. I know for my son, it would be traumatising to be held back a second time, I have a feeling it would be very damaging to his selfworth. We can recover the acedemics later on down the road with extra time or support, it is harder to recover selfesteem! Especially when there are no guarantees that he would not still struggle if held back, so you have a child, sitting 2 grade levels behind, still struggling, thinking they must be the worlds biggest idiot.

Not a pretty thing!

Thanks for your post, Hop-along.

Unfortunately, this isn't on oversight. Our President had implemented a "No Child Let Behind" policy. He is from Texas, and from what I understand Texas has failed this policy miserably. So, he put pressure on the Texas Legislature to come in compliance with his policy, so the Legislature changed the rules. The teachers and Vice Principal of my son's school appear to be very disheartened by this change. They know the children who struggle are going to have great difficulty with this issue next school year. For a public school, I think I have the best team working with my son I could have ever gotten. They seem to genuinely care about his progress.



We don't have such flexibility here in the States. The standard age at graduation is 18. You will have some graduate at 17 depending on when their birthday falls during the year, or 19 if they were held back a year, but 20 is not standard. I've never been to the UK or Europe, so I don't really know how the rest of the world operates in terms of education or in social acceptance. However, here in the States there is so much peer pressure and competition to be perfect. If you don't fit neatly in with the pack, you will not be accepted. If you don't play for a select soccer team since you were the age of 10, you will not be selected to play for the high school soccer team, even if you have the skills of someone who played select. I work in a lawfirm where if you didn't go to one of the top 10 universities, they won't even look at your resume. I don't agree with this policy, but it is prevelent in every city and state where I have lived.



It sounds like you have had some great experiences. That is wonderful! It is so nice to hear of someone with AS being happy and successful. We hear all the problems and issues people are going through on this website. We rarely get an opportunity to hear about the successes, and when someone is happy in their situation. Of course, this is only natural since most of us have come here looking for help. Thank you, again, for the time you put into answering my questions.

See this is my biggest fear. He already has issues with his self esteem. Being held back another year would crush him. The kids already call him dumb for even being in special education.

We're going to meet with my in-laws this weekend. He is a superintendent for a school district and she has worked in special education all her life. I know I can get a lot of my questions answered "truthfully" from them. My husband is already starting to create the defense team line up on this which will involve an attorney and my son's psychologist. This is a fine balance though. The school staff has been wonderful...if I bring in an attorney and a psych, they will immediately come on the defensive and then everything will be a fight from here on out. I don't want to wreck the relationship I have with the school staff, but I do want to do what is best for my son.

This is going to be a rough year!

I think you are about to see graduation at 20 become a lot more common with this new policy. Maybe you should ask your state govenor to come and personally hand deliver the news to your son that he is being held back next year if indeed this does happen!

I also have a hard time believing that Texas is free of Adult learners, kids all over the world fall behind or drop out for a variety of reasons in their teens. It may not be the "norm" but It is not unheard of either.

If you have a really good team working with your son all next year, he may pull off a pass grade next year by the skin of his teeth. Not all is lost if he does get the support that he needs. I don't know the TASKS personally, but I know in any education system I have been in, there is a wide margin between doing well, and passing!

Wouldn't that be a hoot! Haha! I'm laughing so hard I can't stand it.



I agree. There is probably some type of system in place...I just don't have any experience with it. Oh, and the drop out rate, that is a real valid problem our country is facing. I don't ever want that to happen for my son. I don't expect him to become a neurosurgeon or a rocket scientist... ...but I do want him to have a good education and to be able to support himself.



That is true. My son's special ed teacher is a champ! She's already telling me that when I send emails to my son's regular ed teachers (there will be two next year), to cc her on all the emails so she can make sure everything is followed up on. She also said she will tell them that they HAVE to response to my emails that day or by the next morning. Otherwise, I will beseige them with a hail of fire like no other.... (funny...my son's regular ed teacher said this same thing recently...I don't remember, but I must have done something to them this year to give them that impression... ).

Of course you don't want him dropping out! That is every parents worst fear, we want the best for all of our kids, and in todays world you need at a bare minimum highschool, and that is just a jumping off point to an apprenticeship or post secondary in 90% of cases! (At least, that is what 90% of the parents want for their kids!) I am just saying, that with having adult drop outs, you have an adult school system or alternative ed because people do go back! If your son is over 18 and still in school, in most places they have other options for finish it off if a regular classroom is not working anymore, that gets the 20 year old out of an environment that was not designed for them, bad stigma, etc, and into one that is more accepting.

Your son may make huge gains in the next few years, I think the mind of an AS child matures a little later, and things come together for them at an older age if they are not too discouraged. You will find the difference between grade 5 and grade 7 is not so huge, they do the same things over and over again, you need to be vigilant to make sure the gap is not growing, but it is not unforseeable for any average or above average intellegance child to close the gap at some future point. That is what is so disapointing about your sons situation!

And you keep breathing fire and sending hail their way, that way you better believe that your son will get a Test that he can pass at next year! It will be interesting to see what happens to the pass rate in Texas in the next few years, lets just hope your son does not suffer along with countless others!

It is amazing when you go to a college or university just how many people are there who are not brighteyed right out of highschool. Kids often work a few years between, or adults return to upgrade or change careers. He won't be missing much if he does end up a couple years behind. It would just be best if this does not happen prior to grade 6!

You should start looking into your states alternative highschool options, I know finding out what Ontario was doing was a huge relief! I actually am really excited about what those years will mean for my son because they have so many options!