US Schools and Special Education

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Hey, my name's James, and my sister is autistic. She's quite high-functioning (she speaks, and can cope with doing normal life stuff, like dressing and eating and keeping clean, etc.) and is really smart but does lack in coping with people and life on Earth. She's definitely from another planet! All the same, I love her. <--- Making me blush.

Anyway, we're UK based and always have been, but the chances are we will be moving to the US (our dad's military, and we're lucky to have managed to stay in the same place for so long, but we knew we'd have to move sooner or later) late this year or early next year.

My parents aren't great with computers, so I thought I'd help by looking for some advice online from people who know about how special education for autistic kids is in America. We're just looking for advice about how the system works, and we've heard about IEPs, but don't really know anything about them, and wondered what else there is. I, and definitely my parents, would appreciate any advice in answer to this post or through a PM from anyone who has an autistic kid at school in the US/is an autistic kid at a school in the US/knows about this sort of stuff.

Thanks, James
(and Sarah and our parents!)

You may find more useful resources in the Parent's Discussion http://www.wrongplanet.net/forum19.html; many parents have had rather in depth discussions about their experiences with Special Education and their children.

I do know that the child in question will often be evaluated by specialists from that particular school system to determine what precisely is needed. These specialists, along with the parents, will then write an IEP-- Individualized Education Plan-- that outlines the specifics of the accommodations that the child receives. Some autistic children are entirely "mainstreamed" into the regular classes while receiving accommodations such as permission to wear ear-buds and sunglasses in school and receiving extra time to complete test and classwork; some are placed into smaller classes that teach the regular curriculum; some are placed entirely in Special Education classrooms. It seems that your sister will able to learn from the common curriculum, if not even an advanced/honors curriculum, and may only need assistance with social and stimulation coping.

My advice would be to research special education in the specific area that you and your family are moving to (at the very least, the state, if not the parish/county itself). Every school system functions differently. May Sarah, your family, and you have an amazing and prosperous time in the United States!

some places are better with special education than others, I had a terrible one. so be sure to check all the options.

Hi James! Welcome to Wrong Planet! Check out the many interesting and helpful forums here. Have your parents and sister check them out, too. They cover a variety of topics and age groups. There is even a games forum!

Sorry I can't help you with the info you are requesting. I am staggering through my fifth decade of life--bad knees. Back when I was young Autism spectrum disorders existed but were unrecognised. We were misdiagnosed as having emotional/behavior problems and/or discipline problems. I spent 4 years in a special ed school way back then, and hated that as much as I hated public school, and as much as I had hated the Catholic school that I had attended for a few years. After nursery school everything went downhill.

I hope things are better for us in schools now, but I just don't have any current personal info on that. I'm sure many others here can help you, though. I think you've come to the right place for help. They've helped me with stuff. The computer forum here even helped me once or twice, too. Yes, we even have a computer forum here! Neat, huh?

Remember, you, and your family, are among friends here at WP!