I'm a teacher too, and appalling doesn't begin to describe the lack of sensitivity by most regular ed teachers. The good news is that the NEWER teachers have had more training in their college coursework regarding learners who are outside the average.

The best thing you can do is "shop" each year for which teacher you will request for your child, and to encourage the district in routine in-service training for your child's building. If you are a teacher, you know what to snoop for. Yes, in-services don't do anything for the teachers that are not interested, but they do offer a good set of tools for those that are.

Consider that for those teachers responding with indifference or rejection regarding your child's needs, that these are people who react that way for ANY learning difference. It isn't just your child's Spectrum needs, but students with disabilities in learning, second-language learners, bright/gifted kids who respond to boredom by being socially creative instead of burying themselves in reading or writing, kids coming from difficult home backgrounds that create acting-out behaviors or shutting down, etc.

When they talk about judging teachers, it isn't test scores they should be looking at.....

there are some great books out there... some books are "look me in the eye" by John Elder Robison and "be different" by John Elder Robison..very educational for an outsider like a mother/father or teacher to better understand ASD ..and one for kids that is called "The Autism Acceptance Book" by Ellen Sabin This one even helped my sons teacher because it is so simple to understand :) Great for classmates or friends of your ASD child

Our daughter had the privilege of having a master's level special ed teacher as her REGULAR ED teacher in a department of defense school in Okinawa when she was 9 years old. The principal wanted the best for our daughter and requested that this teacher move from S. Korea to Okinawa which she did! This teacher also has a son with autism. She was phenomenol! She utilized cooperative learning and the children sat at round tables instead of individual desks. Our daughter was sat next to a student who was weak in read but great in math--our daughter was the opposite (great reader, poor at math). The two helped each other and for the first time, our daughter had a true friend. Also, ALL the other students did exceptionally well since this teacher knew how to strengthen weaknesses in all the students. This is why I encourage all regular ed teacher to take classes in special ed (and gifted ed) so they can help all of the students in their class.

I feel your pain! I struggled with the public school system for years. We delt with IEP's not being followed, to the school flat out lying to us that services cant be given to my son because he was main streamed. We finally did a lot of research online on child disability rights and went into our iep meeting and ran the show. We even threatened getting an attorney! Unfortunately school hide what service they can give your child and wont give them to you unless you flat out ask them for it. For instance every child with Autism that is mainstreamed is entitled to have a one on one aide to help him or her out during the day. We finally got ours and it helped for a while but then my sons teacher started using the aide as her own personal teachers assistant. (not cool) In the end we gave up on the school because to little was done to late and my poor son became severely depressed from the lack of support at school! He even threatened his life at school and i didn't find out till a week later from them. Sickening!! Needless to say i exploded and took him out of the public school system and am now home schooling. I am looking into trying to stir the pot and go to the school board and bring my story out. Teachers need to pay attention to all there students. Especially the ones that need more help. I think ASD training should be mandatory for all teachers especially since so many kids are on the spectrum. I wish you luck!! and strength!! your child deserves to thrive like everyone else :)

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. So yes, you can require mandatory training but it doesn't do any good if they are so uninterested that they don't implement.

I have found that in our self-centered society, the best way to get unwilling people to adjust their attitudes, is to sell-it. You need to explain to them why this information will help them do their jobs, make their lives easier, or whatever you think might motivate them. Once the interest is generated, than the training can begin!