Telling Teacher about autism level one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so school dependent! I have two kids with ADHD and AuHD diagnoses, and they have been received so differently at different schools.

School A (public): Embraced and supported.
School B (public): Gossiped about (by teachers!) and excluded by the school community from social/club events. Barely supported.
School C (private): Counseled out because teachers don't want to deal with low-grade social friction (but they did keep the kids who are vaping and abusing substances in middle school).
School D (private): Embraced and supported.

We live in the DMV. If I could do it over, I never would have told schools B and C about my kids' diagnoses. If you can possibly find other parents and ask around about a school's approach, I would.

A shout out to the nice teachers on this board who take care of kids with differences, especially the "we see it all" educator.

But you wouldn't have gotten more support from schools B and C if you hadn't told -- they still would not have been good fits for your child.

Sorry! Details get lost on these boards. I should have explained better. I think what I was trying to say is that, at some schools, less can be more. In hindsight, watching the families in our school communities who masked/hid their kids' diagnoses, less attention was sometimes better.

What we needed most of all were teachers who were not ableist bullies. That's why I suggested that the OP ask around and find out what the climate is like before sharing medical diagnoses. It can backfire spectacularly, or go beautifully. (Again, shout out to the teachers who take care of kids with differences!)