School IEP Placement Issues

[NiteCat4Ever]

New to this forum and I am having IEP school placement issues with my school district. My autistic son's doctors; advocates and I all felt it was time to transition him back into the public school system from homeschooling which I have now been doing for four years. He has just progressed so much academically; socially; emotionally in all areas and he is at the age where it is time to learn job skills. So the doctors suggested the job development center that we have in our county that is supposed to have a wonderful autistic program. Unfortunately when we attended our first IEP meeting all the school district is trying to do is to place him in a private school; and upon touring this school which is attached mind you to brooklane pyschiatric hospital; all his advocates and I could see would be regression in all areas. I currently am in limbo waiting for his advocates to get together the next steps which will be another IEP meeting for us since I am not signing the draft they sent home with me. I have been contacting many about what I should be doing next; and have gotten some responses from some other groups I belong to on msn....but would really like to hear what you all have to say on this subject.

Linda

[NiteCat4Ever]

[QUOTE=NiteCat4Ever]New to this forum and I am having IEP school placement issues with my school district. My autistic son's doctors; advocates and I all felt it was time to transition him back into the public school system from homeschooling which I have now been doing for four years. He has just progressed so much academically; socially; emotionally in all areas and he is at the age where it is time to learn job skills. So the doctors suggested the job development center that we have in our county that is supposed to have a wonderful autistic program. Unfortunately when we attended our first IEP meeting all the school district is trying to do is to place him in a private school; and upon touring this school which is attached mind you to brooklane pyschiatric hospital; all his advocates and I could see would be regression in all areas. I currently am in limbo waiting for his advocates to get together the next steps which will be another IEP meeting for us since I am not signing the draft they sent home with me. I have been contacting many about what I should be doing next; and have gotten some responses from some other groups I belong to on msn....but would really like to hear what you all have to say on this subject.

Linda[/QUOTE]

And the good news is we are almost completely done up our draft of what we are proposing to the school district; and we have a Behaviour Spec/Autism Spec/Child Pyschologist coming out to do a home assessment on all areas of my sons life; from that assessment if need be he will write up a behaviour plan to be put in place where we want my son to be. So, we definetly have some things going on in our favor finally. It has been a lot of researching on my part...passing on the research to the advocates involved to check out thoroughly...and involving as many people as we can think of to accomadate what is the best placement for my son; but I finally feel like we are almost there.

[melsmommy]

Why on earth would the public school be trying to place your son in a private school? Federal law guarantees that all children are entitiled to a free and appropriate public education. I'm glad to hear that things are moving in a better direction, and I hope this continues. Do not let them tell you that they can't put him in the public schools. They are required to do whatever is necessary to give him equal access under yet another federal law, the Americans with Disabilities Act. If all else fails, before you sign any IEP that requires a private placement, consult w/ an attorney who specializes in advocating for the disabled. Good luck!