Schools for Autistic Kid

[Anonymous]

My son 3.8 years got diagnosed with school system in today with severe autism and we are moving to Maryland in couple of months. I will have full IEP in a month.Please advise me with school options in Maryland/DC area? He does speak in simple words and socially good etc.

[Anonymous]

I would call up the early intervention program in MD asap. From what I hear MD has better public SN services than DC. You could probably put your child in a free preschool program specifically for kids with ASD.

Were you interested in private schools? If so we may be able to give some options though many don't start until K.

[Anonymous]

If he is socially good and verbal not sure he would be severely autistic. Certainly contact the county in Maryland but I would have a full private work up with a neuropsych or developmental pediatrician -- something sounds off.

[Anonymous]

17:55 posting again

I have a different view on things. I think the level of functioning can changer so much early on that maybe her son was considered severe at one point, but the time he reaches K he could be considered a whole different level. The preschool autism programs can usually accomodate even the hyperlic kids so regardless of whether the child is severe, moderate or mild the OP should be able to find good services for free. I agree with maybe getting on a waitlist for a developmental ped. Neuropsych batteries can be several thousand dollars and to me it seems early to do that or at least that's how we felt with our own child. Our deve ped even said a lot of kids on the spectrum underperform so not sure if it's worth putting a kid through testing so early. The SD is already going to do an eval that is somewhat of a neuropsych eval.

[Anonymous]

stick with Montgomery county MD. Your child will be eligible for a special needs preschool. It may be your homeschool or your child will be bussed to a closeby school where they have programs. So it does not matter where in Montgomery county you live. (this is for public pre-k which is available free for special needs students. You could go to the Montgomery county public schools website under schools and go to individual elementary schools and read the "at-a-glance - special education" to see what is offered at different schools. I did that for about 10 schools before I found "Rosemary Hills e.s. which has a program for Autistic Pre-k. You have to go to each school and read the 'at-a-glance - special needs' pdf to find out what individual schools offer. One reason is that you might want to choose a place to live so you child will go to school with neighborhood students rather be bussed to an entirely different school.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all the responses, still in the denial mode. I am okay with private schools too. The IEP team who did his evaluation advised me to take a house in the best school district. If we take a home in good school district, what are the chances of getting in to a good school? Are all schools in good school district good? Looks like Montgomery county is the one I need to look at.

Hi 19:33, do we get a choice to pick a school when we consider public? You mentioned that you picked Rosemary after looking at 10 schools. I thought they will give us wherever they have a spot available.

Hi 17:55,18:14, your post gave me confidence that one day he is going to be okay. have you seen any one changed from severe to normal? if any one looks at my son in a park, they wouldn't think he is autistic. I guess i need to accept it and do what i can.

Hi 18:01, he is verbal, uses simple words and basic sentences, social with our friend's kid in neighborhood but they noticed that he is not playing with other kids at school, does not sit during center time. he is not harmful, seems to be compassionate.

I am also thinking of getting opinion from Developmental Pediatrician. Do we get ABA therapy for 3.8 year old in Maryland? Does Insurance accept school evaluation or do we need one from Dev Ped? I will have the full IEP by May end latest from here. Does Maryland accept this IEP?

Sorry for too many questions.

[Anonymous]

Hey, OP: It's called a "spectrum" for a reason. Not all kids are the same, and you have SO much guidance to offer! Hang in there.

Look for James MacDonald's "Play to Talk" book -- lots of good stuff in there for both you and family as they interact with kiddo.

[Anonymous]

Look at IvyMount and Katherine Thomas. They both have programs for kids on the Autism Spectrum.

[Anonymous]

19:32 here. Here is how it works, they pick the school appropriate for your child closest to you which has an opening. My child (who has a physical disability, not autism) goes to one of the the 2 schools for pre-k with a child with a physical disability. It just so happens that one of the two schools for kids with physical disabilities is my neighborhood school! So my child is actually going to his local school because we live right next to it. I moved into this neighborhood 10 years, before I met my husband before the child, so it is purely coincidence.

My cousin (who has an autistic adult child) commented when I posted about getting to go to a neighborhood school about how wonderful that is because her child was always bussed to a different non-neighborhood school and didn't get a chance to know anyone in the neighborhood thru school.

You do not have to pick a neighborhood based on the school which is appropriate, I just thought I would make that comment if this is something that interested you and you wanted to look into it. When I said "look at the school", I just went to the schools page and opened up the special ed at-a-glance until I found a school which had an autistic program. It is a long arduous task. They used to have it so you could open up 1 file with all the special ed information for all schools and then just browse the pdf, but that is gone now.

I don't know if you call Mont. county if they will tell you which schools have autisim programs or you have to research it yourself. There is no guarantee that you will get into the school you live close to. The county has to balance the number of kids in the classes.

I would call the http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/pep/index.shtm
or maybe child find and ask about programs.

I don't know if autistic kids go to PEP or they have a special program. For some reason they took most of the information about PEP off of the website about 1.5 years ago, when I was looking into it for my child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for all the responses, still in the denial mode. I am okay with private schools too. The IEP team who did his evaluation advised me to take a house in the best school district. If we take a home in good school district, what are the chances of getting in to a good school? Are all schools in good school district good? Looks like Montgomery county is the one I need to look at.

Hi 19:33, do we get a choice to pick a school when we consider public? You mentioned that you picked Rosemary after looking at 10 schools. I thought they will give us wherever they have a spot available.

Hi 17:55,18:14, your post gave me confidence that one day he is going to be okay. have you seen any one changed from severe to normal? if any one looks at my son in a park, they wouldn't think he is autistic. I guess i need to accept it and do what i can.

Hi 18:01, he is verbal, uses simple words and basic sentences, social with our friend's kid in neighborhood but they noticed that he is not playing with other kids at school, does not sit during center time. he is not harmful, seems to be compassionate.

I am also thinking of getting opinion from Developmental Pediatrician. Do we get ABA therapy for 3.8 year old in Maryland? Does Insurance accept school evaluation or do we need one from Dev Ped? I will have the full IEP by May end latest from here. Does Maryland accept this IEP?

Sorry for too many questions.

If I were you, I'd get a second opinion! Your description is not of "severe" autism at all.

Google around and read the stories of parents whose children have severe autism. You aren't going to see a match there.

Also, check out Stanley Greenspan's book "The Child With Special Needs."

[Anonymous]

Thank You, PP for the number. Called them, hopefully I will hear from them on Monday. I would like to pick neighborhood based on schools, we are planning to stay in MOCO for the same reason. My DH work place is in Baltimore actually and we know that is a bit of drive.

[Anonymous]

This is OP again. Please advise me with the school names that works with autistic kids in MOCO.

[Anonymous]

Hi 13:42, Thank You, I felt the same when I heard it. I was under the impression that it is severe DD because of his interaction with us. But he is different at school. I will get him all the help he needed and hope for the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP again. Please advise me with the school names that works with autistic kids in MOCO.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/#tabs

example: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schoolodex/schooloverview.aspx?s=02794

Now go down the the middle of the page where it says "Rosemary Hills E. S. Special education at a glance". Read it, it says there is an autism program there

Now go to every other elementary school on the list and look for "Name of school special ed at a glance" and read them. See what is at the different schools. Yeah it takes a long time, but I doubt anyone on this list serve could tell you as much as doing that can.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, PP. You are very helpful.