Home Schooling vs. LRE's

[srm1929]

I've read recently of some wonderful programs, operating within the public school system, which include children of all levels of ability with amazing success. As a teacher, the most striking component has been VERY small class size and really great teachers and supports.

My experience is limited to Early Childhood Education. With higher student/teacher ratios, it is easy to attend to the needs of all of the children. How does it go as the children get older. Are most children and parents satisfied or does it disintegrate as time goes on?

[Carrie]

The county I live in has a wonderful Autism-specific program that works with the school district, opperating age based classes on different schools within the county.
My son has been in the program since he was three (5 years now!).

The idea of the program is great, and the staff is exceptional but there are down sides too. Classes are small (8 students max, teacher plus two to three aides!) and individualized so specific IEP's can really be followed rather than being generalized. But the classes tend to isolate and there is minimal opportunity for socializing with "normal" kids. Also, education does tend to get a back-seat to behavioral issues and life skills which really bugs me.

[danielsmom]

I think intentions to teach our children are great however in the scheme of things they fall short. I spend more time talking to teachers about behavioral issues then anything else. We have found some pretty good classes but most came up short. I have found I do better in the summer then they accomplish the whole year. It just seems any class made for our children especially as they get older just aren't good enough.

[firefly]

my name is tammy i am 35,my son carl is 5 he was dignosed with autism at the age of 16 mo. we started right away with all the ot,sen.t.we had a tss come into our home as many as 5 times a week for up to 6 hrs depending on the mood he was in .my son went to a great pre-pre-school envirment for autistic kids they were all around the same age,he did wonderfull, he turned five and we had to move him from the state program to the local program where the local school picked up his education. we were not happy with the school in our location it seemed like all we ever got was negative feedback.we have moved closer to the city and the school my son is attending now is wonderfull.he comes home happy and we are in a rutine ,everone talks about how there children have to be in a rutine,i never knew what that was like.but he don't get upset if his rutine is interupted. hes on a 9pm bedtime 730am wake up on school days.dinner at or around 5-7pm . i think my son has greatly improved in his verbal comunication within the last 4mon.only b/c we as a family have alot of support, we moved to a large home where grandma & grandpa live with us also in the in-law app.i have 3 other children 17,13 ,6, we also have other family that is here most of the time and they have a daughter who is 16 mo. which we are greatfull for the exta help when needed. we bought a toy v-tech laptop that carl plays with all the time. this has helped his verbal comunication alot! for christmas we bought him a leapster,agian helping he also has a home computer which he loves he knows all the letters to the alphabet. all i have to do is spell it out to him and he types in the letters and goes to the site to play games (nickoloaden) we have goten him use to a " my turn " when someone else wants the computer they say my turn and he walks away with out crying and screaming,we set the timer on the microwave 30 min. he can go back and say my turn.he is not potty trained.although he has started to show an interest in it . i'm hoping we can kick the pull ups to the curb soon. well iv'e rambled long enough just thought i would say hello.