Reply to The McLean School: ASD kids need not apply

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Reply to "The McLean School: ASD kids need not apply"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A private school has a right to serve a certain segment of the population as long as it doesn’t discriminate.

Just based on what you report the school doesn’t say - we don’t accept students with autism so don’t apply. They said “ But the co-head of school said that the school does not serve ASD kids well”.  You need to focus on the “well”

So why are you so upset? If your child doesn’t have many characteristics of autism at school then the school might in fact accept your child because the school might serve them well.

Not all private schools can be everything to everyone. [/quote]

Saying in public that the school doesn't serve ASD students "well" is a way to discourage ASD students from applying.  Could you imagine if a school said, "we don't serve african-american students well"?  Or if a school said we don't serve non-native English speakers well?  Or "we don't serve blind kids well"

Saying "we don't serve ASD students well" is disability discrimination.  Even private schools have to comply with the ADA, which requires them to make "reasonable accommodations".  The decision about what accommodations are necessary and "reasonable" needs to be made on an individualized basis -- not on the basis of diagnosis.  No one is in a position to say, "all ASD students need X accommodation, which is always unreasonable and therefore no ASD students have to be admitted to this school."

It is also a different thing to say, "we have evaluated your child (or read the evaluation reports), and it seems clear that your child needs XYZ kinds of instruction, which we are not qualified to offer and/or which would require hiring an unreasonable amount of staff or spending an unreasonable amount of time in instruction just for your kid and/or we offer another kind of instruction that is not beneficial to your kid."  
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