Our School Experience

It was a difficult decision for us to decide to try public school again. As we come to the end of the school year and I look back - I wonder if it was worth it? I guess it depends on the child. Josh loves school and it was definitely the right choice for him. But still it is not much easier having him in school versus home schooling. I was right in my assumption that he could easily fall through the cracks. The past six months has shown me that I will have to stay very active in his education and be prepared to fight for his needs to be met. But he loves the social aspect and the structured schedule, overall it appears to be the right choice for him. Hailey could go to school or be home schooled, either way she would be fine educationally. The work is very easy for her and she loves all the fun, social aspects. However, she calls me a lot wanting me to bring her forgotten or lost things or because she has a stomachache and wants some medicine. I haven't quite figured out what is going on - whether she really has that many stomach problems, is nervous, or just wants attention. Now Ashley is a whole different story. It is hard to tell if it was the right choice for her because there have been so many internal problems within her classroom that have greatly affected her. We put her into school believing the one on one interaction, time away from me, and the social aspect would be good for her. We were concerned because this program had been a disaster in the past. However, we had heard so many good things about the current teacher we thought it was worth a try. I really do love the teacher and so does Ashley. She has great ideas and Ashley has really responded to her. The problem began when they removed the teacher from the classroom six weeks ago. It has been a disaster ever since! All sorts of unfounded accusations and issues have come to light and she will be out the rest of the year. In my opinion, she is an awesome teacher, who is not getting the respect that she deserves. All of the other parents of the children in this class support this teacher. I think a lot of the issues stem from people having very little understanding of the stress and pressure of running an autism program and how different from other classrooms it is. This is a particularly difficult program because in a 3rd grade class of 54 students, 6 of them have autism. This is an extraordinarily high number of autistic students well above the statistical average. We hear that the allegations against the teacher were unsupported and have been dropped and that she will be back next year. So I guess we will wait until next year to make the decision on whether this is right for Ashley.