AUTISM - education and the rights of the child?

Question

my nephew is autistic, he attends a a mainstream school with a base within it specially for autistic children. there are 8 kids altogether in the base.

one of the other mums phoned my sister asking if she ever had any problems with the base or teachers. she said only once, when my nephew was getting bullied, they didnt seem to care till my sister put her foot down and said deal with this NOW.

she went on to say that her little boy would not be returning after the holidays as the school head and depute had taken the decision to exclude him permanently as ''he is too much to handle''

she went on to say he had his ''golden time'' (period of time in the afternoon where they can do what they want - draw read etc) taken away because at playtime he said he scored a great goal - the teacher said no you didnt and punished him.

he was also left in the ''chill out'' room all afternoon himself when generally he should have been there a few minutes with supervision.

his mum asked if

Answer 1

This is unfortunate, but what exactly is your question?

Answer 2

If this is true then i think it is appauling... he should in no way have been treated like this, was it a personel attack on him or was everyone treated this way?

I think you should talk to the school about it and see what they have to say for themselves.

Answer 3

Is it a public or a private school?  That will make a difference in what the laws are on whom they can and cannot accept.  A private school will have much more discretion on deciding these things and, unfortunately, may be terrible if they choose to be.

If it is a public school, every child has a right to an education if you are in their district unless there are other problems (such as the school being full, etc).  Then they would have to find another place for your child.

If he has autism, does he have an IEP that describes some disciplinary actions?  If so, did the school break the IEP in any way?  That is something worth looking into.

I would be careful how you discern what is truth from an angry parent's statement.  I don't know this person either way, so I'm not saying either way what happened and what did not.  But many times a parent is a problem with the school, the school removes the child because the parent is not cooperating, and then the parent exaggerates every story to make the school look bad.  Just be careful is all I'm saying.  Unfortunately, I'm afraid your story is not as uncommon as we hope it is and I'm sure many people have gone through similar situations.

I would start by contacting:

1) the Autism Education Network.  Their web site is

http://www.autismeducation.net/

2)  Autism Society of America:  

http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageS...

Both those organizations will be able to provide a lot of information about the rights of education for children with Autism.  

I hope something can be done and this gets fixed.

Matt

Answer 4

That is not right. Autistic children deserve the same treatment as any other child. While it is good that she is doing the best for her child now, it should have never came to that. I think she should write a letter to the school board explaining the situation so no other child has to suffer through the wrong decisions made by that 'teacher'.

I would rally the other moms around her and not stop until something was done.

Autism Rights Movement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_righ...