Public or Private?
Today’s NPR has a story on autism education and on public schools preparing themselves to educate kids with autism. The Boston-area May Institute is profiled along with public school programs in Newton, Massaschusetts.
My son Charlie has been in both private and public school placements and both have their pros and cons. I like that Charlie attends school in our town and, while in a self-contained classroom, is able to see and have occasional interactions with his peers. I also like that our school district has made a commitment to educating autistic children by providing training, supervision, and support for the teachers, aides, and therapists—-this is essential. We were very fond of the ABA-based private school that Charlie attended from December 2005 - June 2006; he only ceased to attend it because that school closed. It was very small and had a kindly, homey feel. On the other hand, I was not looking forward to having to negotiate regularly with the district about paying the tuition and transportation fees, and worrying about him being brought back to one of the district’s programs.
Does your child attend a public school or private school?
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POSTED IN: Education
37 opinions for Public or Private?
mommy~dearest
Aug 15, 2007 at 1:09 pm
My son attends public school. We have experience with the worst-school-in-America, as well as a truly awesome school.
The school he started at was absolutely terrible. They refused him services, and said things like “we won’t get him a ‘bumpy seat’ because he can use a bunched up sweatshirt”. I advocated until I was blue in the face, and they just did not care that they were not in compliance with the law.
Needless to say, I yanked him from there, moved, and he started mid-year in a wonderful school district. I have total faith that Jaysen’s Team is there for him, and have his absolute best interest at heart.
Private or public, I think it’s all about the people involved. If they are there for the right reasons, and there for the children, that’s what can make a huge difference.
HCN
Aug 15, 2007 at 1:30 pm
mommy~dearest said “Private or public, I think it’s all about the people involved. If they are there for the right reasons, and there for the children, that’s what can make a huge difference.”
Exactly.
It does not matter what the sign says in front, it is the people who are inside the building who make a difference.
Things also change when different people come and go. One parochial school was well regarded in our area, but when a new headmistress arrived it all changed. Several students from there switched to my younger kids’ public school.
Even that public school went through a metamorphasis over the years my kids attended it. It started out as a so-so school, then became a shining example of a school which accepted and provided services for disabled kids (the principal had been a speech therapist)…. and now it is a school that pushes its gifted and talented program but still works well with its remaining disabled population (the deaf and hard of hearing program left that building to go to a more centrally located campus).
HeatherS
Aug 15, 2007 at 1:33 pm
My son has been to three schools. The first was a private school my son attended for about 2 years. It serves a wide range of disabilities for students from 2 to 21 years old. It has good facilities and a large staff, in fact my husband still works there, but after two years my son’s vocabulary consisted of exactly three words, and we felt it was time to find another program.
The next program was also private, a much smaller school specifically for kids on the spectrum, with an ABA structure. At first we were intimidated by the ABA because we had heard so many harsh things about it, but it was far less militaristic than we had heard and the staff was incredibly loving and friendly. In his one year there, his vocabulary exploded. I credit their ABA approach with much of the language that he has today. He still does not communicate verbally, but vocabulary is not the problem.
He only left that school because he reached school age and the school district insisted that they had the means of providing him all of the services that he needed. We resisted, but the law supported them as they were still carrying on all of his services, and they even added a few to sweeten the deal. We think that they quietly disapproved of the ABA program. He has just completed one full year in the public school and his social skills seem to be improving. Everyone at the school is very accepting of him, everyone makes efforts to say “hi” and no one seems to give up, despite the fact that he never says “hi” in return. We feel that the school has been very good to him, and very good for him.
Overall, if we had anything to do over again, it would have been to place him into the ABA program much sooner than we did, but everything else would be the same.
Chuck
Aug 15, 2007 at 1:43 pm
My son attends a private school that I assisted in creating under an umbrella non-profit organization. Public school was routinely and utterly AWFUL! In the few fleeting years of public school we found a few excellent teachers that were intimidated and extorted into poor choices by a sadistic and imbecilic school administration.
No matter where they pushed us, we were still under their draconian rule. Fortunately for us, ultimate bureaucracy does lead to ultimate idiocy. One well placed IEP objective leading to one strategically planned due process resulting in private school that the county pays for (dearly).
school_searcher
Aug 15, 2007 at 2:55 pm
I’m looking for a new school in So Cal for my HFA/Aspie/ADHD pre-teen. Suggestions would be greatly helpful.
FXS mom
Aug 15, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Public. The only private schools in our area are religious and I don’t want to impress upon my son a faith that we do not share. To me it seems it would be more confusing to a mentally handicapped child.
If there was a private school that wasn’t religious I might investigate it to see how they would be with Mat.
Club 166
Aug 15, 2007 at 3:22 pm
For pre-school our son attended a Montessori school and it was great. It helped immensely that the owner has 2 children that have ADHD and behavioral issues. She was very understanding and helpful in accomodating and working with some of our son’s issues.
Kindergarten and 1st grade have been in public schools. Kindergarten was a disaster, and we pulled Buddy Boy from the school for about 4 months of home schooling, rather than have him expelled. After many IEP meetings, money and lawyers, 1st grade was at another school in the same district, and went much better.
Joe
Eleanor
Aug 15, 2007 at 3:37 pm
We’ve had awful experiences with public schools (3 schools in 2 years, and trying yet another one in the fall). No private schools in our area, unfortunately. Our district has pretty much a one-size-fits-all approach to special ed, preferring to lump everyone who needs special ed services into self-contained classrooms designed for kids with mental retardation. Plus a really lousy attitude about inclusion.
Basically, although we send my son to public school, all of his actual education occurs through home tutoring, since the schools provide virtually nothing. (They had him sitting in a class with kids learning their ABCs last spring…even though he could read whole books before he was 3!)
natalia
Aug 15, 2007 at 4:21 pm
what about homeschool?
AJ
Aug 15, 2007 at 4:22 pm
JP spent his entire elementary career at our public school (he was diagnosed in Kindergarten). When he was in second grade, a new principal came in as well as a new SpecEd director. The principal had advanced degrees in SpecEd. That school was a godsend for us. The district OT THREW services at us, JP had speech, but was mainstreamed completely. Now he’s off to public middle-school, and I’ve been spending a lot of time this summer preparing for that–including a presentation for his new teachers.
Ely, having more (and more severe) issues, is in a different public pre-school in their Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities. The first two years that she attended, she had a remarkable teacher, aide and Speech therapist. Unfortunately, last year, that teacher moved up in the district, and the school hired a woman who had never taught. Anywhere. Ever. It wasn’t a diaster, thanks to the aide and ST, but Ely certainly make a lot of progress in school. Next year, Ely will move to our home campus to enter their Developmental Program.
I can see good and bad in both public and private (I attended private schools most of my life). I also agree that the people inside the building are most important, but we’ve realized that the relationships that we’ve built with the teachers and administrators, and the resulting communication, has been the biggest boost for our kids. We all want to sing off the same page.
And I thank God every day for the real-estate agent who found us our house, zoned to these schools.
Joe
Aug 15, 2007 at 4:58 pm
My son’s been in public since day one. The first district he was in knew there was something different about him, but insisted that it was not their job to figure out what that was, or even what he needed.
In the middle of the first grade I convinced his mom to move to the district I live in and everything changed. He’s in a wonderful TEACH classroom, and the plan is to have him mainstream in a year (after only two years in a TEACH program.)
Beth
Aug 15, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Public. My son has had a wonderful experience in an integrated room (part-time self-contained, part-time integrated with aide.)
Home schooling may provide a child with academic skills but does not address the social piece. I would only advise it for the short term (one year, possibly two.)
Social skills groups only meet for an hour each week. My son tried a social skills group but the only way he can make friends is with heavy exposure to the same kids. One hour per week is not sufficient for him.
Leanne
Aug 15, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Patrick’s only done jr kindy, but he’s heading into his second year at a wonderful public school. They’ve been fabulous so far.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Aug 15, 2007 at 6:18 pm
There are some great private schools for autistic kids here in NJ, but the best ones (well, the ones we would like Charlie to go to) are very small and tend to accept only young chilren (preschool age or only up to age 5). This was a huge frustration a few years ago when Charlie’s public school placement proved supremely inappropriate and there were no openings in the private schools.
Chuck
Aug 15, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Kristina,
That is why I helped in opening a private school. The school system was inappropriate for many children in our county and there was no private school in the county or surrounding area that could help. Current students come from three different school districts.
Jen
Aug 15, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Now i’m in the right place with my comment
I don’t have kids, but I do ABA home therapy with some students.
Student 1 was in a private preschool placement last year, but is being moved to a public placement this school year. Woohoo!
Student 2 has been in a public placement since age 3, and is now almost 9 1/2. He started in the school where student 1 will be going this year. The school district provides his ABA Home Therapy.
Student 3 is in a private placement. His family moved from OR, to NJ, for him to be in a certain private autism school that I think you may have referred to once in a post a while ago. His dad has expressed that he might consider a move to PA, into the school district that I, and students 1 and 2 live.
A former student was in a public placement for pre-school, then moved to a private pre-k, where he was included in a regular class and provided an aide. He was then moved back to a public K autistic support class,and will be in the same placement for 1st grade. This used to be a county based program, but as of this school year, it is now a school district based program.
2 kids who went to Tae Kwon-Do where I used to go were in the same placement, but in higher grades, as the former student. There was also a student there,I’m not sure if he’s still going though, who started a private autism school on their own.
GS
Aug 15, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I have come to this blog for the first time and I really liked the way Kristina blogs about various things which were still in dark for me and the responses from many others.
One of our family friend has a child who is diagonosed with autism. She is surprisingly very attached to me and my husband and we try to spend a lot of time with her. We take her to park, and play games with her. We get her books, read her books and play the number games and stuff like that.
Now I want to use the time I spend with her for an educative purpose and help in her development mainly social interaction. Can you suggest me some teaching techniques or suggest me a course that will help my teaching approach perfect. I dont want to try wrong things that will hurt the child. Pls suggest.
Chuck - I see that you started a school for special kids. Can you help me with some of your ideas.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Aug 15, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Jen, did the student who moved to NJ end up in the school that his parents hoped to place him in? Did it work out?
Jen
Aug 15, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I’m not sure whether they moved specifically for the one school, or just to NJ in general for the hope of a better school and services for the child. I think however, that they wanted him in that one school. They live about 5-10 minutes from said school, and that is the school he goes to.
Chuck
Aug 15, 2007 at 11:09 pm
GS,
From our personal experiences, this is what needs to happen
1) You need to talk to other parents who need the school as much or more then you do
2) You need to have “buy-in” from the community. Our local chapter of ARC saw the need for better educational services volunteered to assist with the administration, staffing, and facilities. The first year we had a “perfect storm” of parents. The current director of the school was working on her legal degree and had confronted the school administration for multiple issues. The director of ARC was also a very strong advocate who assists with IEP/due process issues. I just have a tendency to fight for things I believe in. The school administration would cringe at the sight of one of us, tended to back down with two of us were together, and stepped aside when all three of us worked together. One parent offered seed money to get off the ground for supplies. The director volunteered and administered the school. I did a great deal of PR and fund raising. I convinced our congressman to visit the school and he provide the school with a $250K grant for expansion
3) You need to have good teachers. All of our teachers are Carbone certified ABA-VB. The ratio is 1:1 for every student.
Year 2 through ?
1) You need to talk to other parents
2) You need to have “buy-in” from the community
3) You need to have good teachers.
Schools are just like children, more often then not high-maintenance, you can never stop taking care of them, and you know when you have done a good job.
Chuck
Aug 15, 2007 at 11:29 pm
GS,
I have to apologize for my previous post. I like to read before I go to bed and apparently I am a little more tired then usual and didn’t understand your question.
For our son, I am more of a “PE” teacher. My wife has an education degree and is more of a “teacher” to our son. I HIGHLY recommend any form of exercise to assist in behavior and academics.
For anyone wanting to start a school, read above post.
Good night.
Aidoann
Aug 16, 2007 at 12:39 am
Hmm… as someone else has already brought up, what about homeschooling? I would have loved to be homeschooled in elementary school, but my parents decided to send me to a small private school. I really didn’t have any friends there and was teased a lot. I’ve gone to private school through high school and at the second school I was at, things went much better.
I think it just depends on the individual person, really. I need smaller classes and a little more one-on-one interaction with the instructor.
Moi ;)
Aug 16, 2007 at 12:43 am
Public. I have taught at several private schools, you could not pay me to send my kid to one. I would homeschool first (and hate it every minute, as would he, lol).
What I want to know is, what’s out there as far as colleges go?????
Kristina Chew, PhD
Aug 16, 2007 at 12:56 am
A whole new world, college! An AS student did look at Fordham where my husband works and settled for NYU. Fairleigh Dickinson University in NJ has a program geared towards AS students and the director (I know him) is quite knowledgeable. Some students seem to like smaller schools where there are simply fewer people and more individual attention is possible.
KimJ
Aug 16, 2007 at 12:37 pm
My son: Public schools since age 3, Indiana, California and now Arizona. Preschool in IN and CA were integrated with “peer friends” and mainly were based in “Integrated Play Groups”. Kindergarten was regular ed with an itinerant special ed teacher overseeing his IEP and behavior plan and a 1:1 aide. 1st grade was a mess, 2 1/2 months in a regular class with a terrible aide and terrible special ed teacher “overseeing” his plan. She denied knowing anything about autism. School psychologist tried sending us to a really “low functioning, low expectation” autism clinic across town. We pulled him out and I homeschooled him for a quarter. He’s been enrolled in a great special ed class but attends regular ed fulltime. He gets “checked on” by aides or his special ed teacher. If problems arise, we discuss goals to deal with it.
Me: public school. I did poorly in a small public school because I wasn’t liked and there’s no one to “forgive” you when you’re “different”. I thrived in large high schools and college where I didn’t have to “fit in” and had more choice with classes, fashion and eating.
Husband: private and public. Remarkably, he did well in a small parochial school because there were few transistions, carpeted floors (quiet) and some amount of (reluctant) acceptance of his different skills. His experience with public schools were mostly overwhelming (loud, crowded, unpredictable, intolerant) until late high school.
College: I know a woman back in CA who worried that her son would drop out of high school. She enrolled him in community college (he was 14) so he could see the benefits of “continuing education” and also study his special interests. There are some tricks to getting help but it seems very worthwhile to maintain “hope” that your child can pursue his/her special interests in a nurturing environment.
HCN
Aug 16, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Homeschool?
I know my limitations. There is no way I could provide all my son needed (not autistic, though he may get that diagnosis if he were 10 years younger… severe neurological based expressive communication disorder). I do not think I would be a good substitute for the educational team at his public school which consisted of a teacher, aide, OT and speech therapist, plus a psychologist. He starts community college next month. Yikes! Where did the time go?
I also learned something with my typically developing younger child. When he was little we did the “mom and tot” swim lessons. He would NEVER ever do anything for me. He would not jump from the side of the pool to me, blow bubbles or kick. He would, however, let go of me and say “I swim that way”, and then promptly sink to the bottom of the pool (yes, I retrieved him, and he was all smiles). When he was three years old I signed him up for the 3-year old class — where he did everything the high school aged swim teacher.
Sigh.
This is how I realized that homeschooling is not a realistic goal for us.
Plus, my main job as a parent is to make sure the kids go to bed alive each night. If I homeschooled them that may not happen. ;p
Irony note: My younger son is now a high school aged swim instructor! Yesterday I picked him up after work and he was very happy. He gave a private swim lesson to an autistic boy. My son structured the lesson as a series of games where he gave his student “jump cards”, since the boy loved jumping off the diving board.
Joe
Aug 16, 2007 at 2:41 pm
HCN,
If your son is autistic then he’s autistic. He can get diagnosed even if he’s going into college. You don’t have to be a child to meet the criteria.
I’m 35 years old and I still meet the DSM IV criteria for autism. It’s not a childhood thing, it’s life long.
And being autistic I made it through public school without any extra help. I was bored out of my mind and had little to no friends, but I graduated.
passionlessDrone
Aug 16, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Hi Chuck -
“No matter where they pushed us, we were still under their draconian rule. Fortunately for us, ultimate bureaucracy does lead to ultimate idiocy. One well placed IEP objective leading to one strategically planned due process resulting in private school that the county pays for (dearly).”
That is rich! I’d like very much to discuss with you how you went about this so I might be able to perform a similar operation. If you would be willing to do so offline from this forum, please email me:
passionlessDrone@yahoo.com
Thanks!
-pD
HCN
Aug 16, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Actually he has oral motor dyspraxia with functional dysarthria and some dysphasia, which may or may not be related to a history of seizures. He does not have any issues with attention span, and is social… but that is limited because of his expressive communication issues.
When he was three the child neurologist said he was not autistic. When he was five the neurologist said he was not autistic. With his very specific diagnosis where he got the exact services he needed. (this included a total of ten years of speech therapy, because when he entered preschool he had no speech, but a 70 word sign language vocabulary which he had learned just during the previous summer) He has been in classes with kids who have a similar diagnosis to him, kids with cerebral palsy, hard of hearing kids and kids with various forms of autism (including hyperlexia).
Only last year the high school psychologist ventured a “guess” that he had Asperger’s qualities, but acknowledged that if he had that diagnosis NOW he would receive fewer special ed. services.
Hence my opinion that the “autism” diagnosis is being used these days with too broad a brush.
By the way, my son will receive disability services at the community college that mostly include more time for tests, the use of a keyboard for essay questions and to take them in the testing center. He has already been helped by their disability office. When he first took the English placement test he rushed through in a half hour and scored a 55, which placed him in “Adult Basic Education”. Without the disability office’s help he would have had to wait three months before taking the test again, but he was allowed to take it the next day. That time he took almost and hour and a half and scored a 78, which qualified him for pre-college English at the level just before college English (the community college has several catch-up to college courses).
Joe
Aug 16, 2007 at 4:12 pm
HCN,
Asperger’s is a form of autism. I know because that’s the label I have (and I think the main reason for that is I can talk now, I did have a delay when I was a toddler, then turned into one of the little professors noted in the original studies.)
I also get disability services from my college. Since I read everything I get my hands on (reading could be counted as one of my perseverations) I placed in the highest placement available for english both times I tested. But I improved a math level when I took the test in the disablilty office in a private room with no time pressure and the lights off.
With my diagnosis I also get more time for tests and will be using the disablility office’s testing rooms. I haven’t thought about using a keyboard for essays, I do type faster and clearer than I can write, if there’s a chance that it might help I can change things in the future. My enrolling makes me the fourth autistic student at my school. I will also have the option of meeting regularly with the others to go over strategies and ideas for issues we may have with one of the staff members in the disability office facilitating it for us.
I also have a limit on requirements to interact in group activities. It’s something I can not do easily. I can socialize with people I know, but I have troubles with people I don’t, sometimes I can’t talk at all if I can’t pull up a script for the situation I’m in.
I suspect that he would get the same services he has now with an autism label in another area, one that has better autism services.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Aug 16, 2007 at 5:44 pm
HCN, thanks for sharing all the history about both of your sons—-it is good to hear about how well your older son is doing and I like much the idea of your younger son using those “jump” cards. KimJ, I admire you for homeschooling—I could never have done it! If I may ask, did you move for autism services or for other (work?) related reasons, just wondering……
Joe and HCN, very interesting and important for me as a college professor to know about what has worked and helped and what has not. Another ASD college student once told me that the accommodations so far offered to students are those for LD—more time to take tests etc..
HCN
Aug 16, 2007 at 7:23 pm
The accommodations for LD students is what is appropriate for my son. He cannot type fast because the words just do not come out of him very fast (word finding problems, the dysphasia).
There is another community college in a nearby town that does have a specialized program for students with several types of developmental disabilities:
http://bellevuecollege.edu/venture/
This is a program that parents got together to help create:
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=venture17e&date=20050817&query=venture
KimJ
Aug 16, 2007 at 7:27 pm
“If I may ask, did you move for autism services or for other (work?) related reasons, just wondering……”
The move to Indiana was work and family related. The move from Indiana was mostly stress-related (job, family, cultureshock). The level of services and help we were looking for at the preschool/Kindergarten level seemed adequate but we knew Pop’s prognosis in Indiana was very dim. Gov’t aid was frozen the year we moved and I kept reading stories about kids “falling through the cracks” of special ed. It was really a combination of things that led to us leaving for California. We didn’t know what to expect in CA but I had some relatives and friends that could help somewhat. There was no one in Indiana that could help us.
We liked the (educational) system in CA, it seemed set up to manipulate for our needs. The Regional Center helped to a point. However, it was way too expensive there.
We moved here so that I could still be a stay at home mom and not live in a cardboard box.
Moi ;)
Aug 16, 2007 at 7:40 pm
If everyone would just take an advocate with them to their IEP meetings, they could get pretty much anything they wanted from the public school system. At least in PA, that is.
The problem with people not getting the proper services generally has to do with the schools trying to snow job the parents, who don’t know the intricacies of education law.
My son didn’t have the autism Dx until he was 10. I had a bunch of dr’s tell me it wasn’t autism, too. Had I had that Dx, with an advocate I could have walked in and asked for the moon, she would have shown how it was appropriate and how they HAD to provide it. But we didn’t have that Dx, and I didn’t have much recourse.
Private schools don’t have to teach to Any Dx. Public schools do, and you CAN make them. And if you can’t, there’s always Due Process and Gaskin.
Moi ;)
Aug 16, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Kristina, there is a whole lot more to auties in college than smaller classes; this is something I have been trying to work on in PA. The state universities that teach the special ed teachers NEED to provide an autism support plan - malleable, of course, to the student’s needs. Keep your eyes open, I am working on a post about it…
school_searcher
Aug 16, 2007 at 7:46 pm
In re: colleges, I believe the program at Marshall Univ in Huntington, WV is considered quite good. I think it was the first one of its kind to have a specialized program for students with ADD/ADHD/AS; dyslexia, etc.
Mary Emma
Sep 2, 2007 at 7:21 pm
My grandson was diagnosed with Asperger’s about 20 months ago. To us, this explains so many of his little “quirks” that have been with him since infancy and are getting more noticeable now that he’s 12 years old. However, it’s been very difficult to get the public school administration and teachers to recognize this. They apparently consider him as having a mild anxiety disorder. So we have to continue seeking the extra help he needs to keep him focused on his school work. We live in the “boonies” so private school isn’t an option.
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