How to find a school for a child who may need more support

[Anonymous]

Our child is a junior and we are looking at colleges. Our child is intelligent, but high school has been challenging for a variety of reasons. There's been depression, anxiety, and a diagnosis of high functioning autism (what would have been aspergers at one time). How do you go about finding a school which is going to be sensitive to the needs of this child? There's an IEP.

Thank you for any guidance or help you can provide.

[Anonymous]

SALT program at Arizona...though, it might be best to keep them within a few hours drive. Just because you don't know how the adjustment is going to go.

You can consider CTCL (though they do not specialize in kids with challenges), Marist. Nothing too intense or hard driving. Good luck to you and your child!

[Anonymous]

There are consultants who specialize in helping find schools that have supports--more and more schools do, but some promise more than they deliver. One consulting group in this area is College Consulting Collaborative (I think that's the name--3 C's).

Here is a list of colleges that offer some supports--but I think this list may be outdated and in any case changing all the time as more schools add in supports: http://collegeautismspectrum.com/collegeprograms/#NewYork

You might consider hiring an executive function coach from the get-go, if you can find one near the college or online (skype), to help with that side of the issues. You can also look for a college that has single dorms of that is preferred.

You will need to have a psyched eval that is less than 3 years old by the start of freshman year in order to get disability support services like extended time, notes, etc. It's important to do it after age 16 so they use the adult WISC--otherwise colleges may not accept it.

There are probably books on this as well, and the local high schools (at least in MCPS) have regular lectures for parents by consultants who share info on college for students with special needs.

[Anonymous]

See thread from today on FERPA waiver and be sure your kid signs when they start college.

[Anonymous]

There really is no one right answer. Some kids do better at small schools, some at larger schools with lots of resources. I knew someone would mention the CTCL schools and yes, some of them might be a good fit for your kid but many will not. It really is very individual. Some things that my DC with mental health and LD issues considered when researching schools:

Academic fit - generally wanted a place that felt less competitive but still had good academics. Ultimately ended up at a school where she is in the top quarter of the class (based on her ACT and GPA).

Location – decided to stay relatively close to home so we could drive to her if there was an emergency.

Mental Health resources – this really varies across schools so you need to specifically ask what they provide their students and how many counselors the school has. There should at least be enough counselors available that a student doesn’t need to wait to talk to someone if they are in a crisis.

Disability office – find out what they offer and how accessible they seem. One suggestion is to look at where the school’s disability office is located on campus. Is it in a nice, welcoming location or is it tucked away in the basement of the parking garage? Small schools are not necessarily better than large schools.

Genera support services – generally, does the school seem to value student mental health? Do they offer de-stress workshops? Do they have good academic support? Is there someone on staff who will reach out to a student who seems to be struggling?

[Anonymous]

Is it appropriate to ask these questions before applying? Or better to wait till after DC gets in? I would worry that it could hurt admissions to reveal problems.

[Anonymous]

The disability office is not allowed to share information with the admissions office. I met each disability office during admitted student visits.

I was impressed with the office at Dickinson, as well as their workshops (like time management) which are open to all students.

[Anonymous]

Admittedly, I don’t speak from experience but have been researching looking ahead for my HFA son and George Mason has a program for kids on the spectrum called MASI. But not an easy school to get into.