My middle daughter was placed in self contained mid way through preschool. I didn't understand at the time so I advocated for her to stay in regular Ed. But they placed in self contained anyway. At the end of the year when she would of gone into kindergarten they wanted to place her in regular Ed no para. All of sudden my opinion didn't matter. It didn't matter that we had visited all the autism classrooms or that we gone through the districts controlled choice program. We had already hired a lawyer at the time and were beginning to go through the due process phase. We continued this process and were able to get her back in self contained by first grade. She is still self contained today now in almost 7th grade. I really wish I had the courage, time and money to go through due process with my youngest now.

@A MyAutismTeam Member, yes it was/is the same thing with my son. He doesn't have learning disabilities except handwriting and he does have an issue with math b/c of memory issues. He cannot remember the formulas to do the work, but if he has the formulas, he can do it. He was above his peers in his class also which made it hard sometimes b/c they knew he could easily do the work, but b/c at the time his ADHD was so bad, he just couldn't focus. Now it's different I think as he has matured.

As for the handwriting issue, don't push him to be forced to write. He's had OT for it but he still just couldn't write a lot. He'd do a few sentences and then become frustrated. I know for my son he says that writing is just something that is painful for him to do. He was given a writing device(Alpha Smart/Forte) in 4th grade and then when he started middle school he was given a Chrome Book. It made his life in the classroom much easier. He was able to get his work done and keep up. The OT person at our school was the one who did the evaluation and put the request in. You could ask about something like that for your son and have it put into his IEP.

You really need to ask the teachers about why they feel he isn't ready for GE class. They are with him all day and they may see behaviors that you don't see at home. Our kids have their school selves and their home selves so he may exhibit behaviors that deem inappropriate (not meaning bad, but not at peer level) that would interfere with him being in the GE class.

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A MyAutis...

thanks @A MyAutismTeam Member !

@A MyAutismTeam Member thanks for the insights. this was helpful. my son doesn't have learning disabilities and is at grade level or above in all areas (except handwriting!). so, the only day class for kids who aren't behind in academics is the behavior class. Its just it seems he has graduated from the behavior issues for the most part, but he still isn't ready for the GE class according to the teacher. I just finally got them to allow my son to spend a half hour in the GE class a few days a week. I'm afraid that he is going to prefer the special day class due to all the toys, ipads and rewards in that room, and he will not want to go to the GE class.

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A MyAutis...

Part 2

You have to also look at your sons maturity level too. Our kids are usually a few years behind their peers, so if you do want him mainstreamed he may not do well because of that. That is something we looked at with my son too. If he is having a hard time staying on task then he will have even a harder time being mainstream with 20+ kids and one teacher. The teachers in GE class do not have the time to keep him on task. He will become frustrated b/c he will not be able to focus. You could ask the school if he could be mainstreamed 2x a week say in one of the subjects he does well in and see how it goes. We tried that with my son with one class and one teacher who knew him well. Unfortunately it just didn't work. It was very overwhelming for him, he just couldn't stay on task etc.

As far as the rewards, you need to speak to the teacher about it. Explain to them that you would like to have a different reward and maybe the Ipad only 1x. are the rewards for staying on task and completing work? Or is for just having a good day period? Does your son have a behavioral plan in place along with his IEP? The behavioral plan can have all of that in it.

Does your son's school have a separate classroom for kids with learning disabilities or have they just lumped everyone together? And if so, is there another school in the area with a self contained class for learning disabilities that you could send him to?

As far as communication goes, I spoke to the teacher and said "ok, so every Thurs. I will be emailing you to find out about my son's week and if there is anything I need to know about." The teacher would usually email me back the next day. If they didn't get back to me by Mon. then I would send another email and copy in the principle to let them know. I really never had to do that b/c I made sure that the teacher and I were on the same page.