Autism-Getting A High School Autism Program

This blog is the 10th in a series about a Lake Elsinore mom's personal challenges and triumphs  ...

Now it was time to transition again. I had learned from the previous two transitions that things needed to be done way ahead of time for students like my son with Autism. 

The only class the County had to offer was a classroom that had a lot of students and the majority weren’t Autistic. The teacher of that program was one of the teachers my son had at middle school. They didn’t really get along and I didn’t feel the teacher really “wanted” my son in his high school class.  At this critical time in our kids lives, we need to be looking at life skills more than academics. If they haven’t learned basic academics by the time they hit high school, then the focus should be on what are they going to do once they leave school. I feel it really doesn’t matter where they are functioning, they ALL need these skills before they leave public school.

I approached the county administrators and told them we needed an Autism program that was focused on life skills. Their remarks were, “We don’t have a teacher or a site." If these were the two problems in getting an appropriate class, I would find a way.

My son was fortunate to have had a teacher in elementary school who believed in taking the students out in the community at least twice a week. She also saw that the earlier they were exposed to the real world, the better they could transfer what they learned. When my son first started with this teacher, she admittedly said she knew very little about Autism. Over the years though, she went back to school and to all the conferences she could attend regarding Autism. She credits her interest in it because of my son. He touched many people’s lives during his school years.

This particular teacher had been teaching high school before she took on the elementary county class. When my son was going to transition to high school, I thought about that. We had become close friends over the years and I thought I would ask her if she would consider leaving elementary school and going back teaching high school.  To my surprise she said yes and we got busy on getting this “all Autism class” to become a reality.

The next obstacle was where would this classroom be? It made sense to have the students from the middle school follow the standard issue peers to the high school they were going to. I did a little snooping and discovered that the county had some portable classrooms they were renting from the district at the high school but they were occupied by the “Esparanza” program (the pregnant teen program). This program had three portables: one for the new moms and TWO for the infants. The portable for the infants was a doublewide trailer with all the life skill things we needed for our class (a washer, dryer, kitchen, living room and dining room area). 

Our district had just finished building a brand new addition across the street from the district office where the childcare and other social services for families were held. I attended a board meeting and I asked why they couldn’t move the Esparanza program to that location. It made more sense for the pregnant teen program and gave us a site to open the Autism program. It just bothered me that we were being told there was “no room” for our kids, yet infants that were not students in our district were taking up TWO portables that were perfect for this Autism program.  It didn’t seem fair to me.

Well, once again we were able to get what was needed! They moved the program and gave us the two portables. The next glitch that we faced was how to furnish this classroom. The county made it clear that the funds were scarce. The teacher and I both donated household items. I just happened to have a neighbor who was moving and she gave me her dining room set, a couch and other items for the kitchen. The teacher had a lot of personal items she brought. A friend of mine even donated a brand new refrigerator to the class. People were so wonderful in helping us get this class set up. The students each had their desks and the one portable had a separate room that the teacher set up as a sensory room. It was a place the student could go to when things got a little too loud or crazy. In that room was a large comfortable chair, a CD player, a little waterfall, and the blinds could be closed to make it more comfortable.  The classroom also had two restrooms.

In the beginning there were only six students and each student had an aide. It really made it nice to be able to get the one-on-one attention that these students needed so badly. This class became a model class for the county. It worked so well for all the students and the staff.

Once again, my son’s aide followed him to high school. She had bonded so close with him. I used to tease her and say she was more worried about him than I was. She really was like a second mom to him all through school. I believe she was with him for a total of 11 years all together. Needless to say, she was a part of the family.

The first couple of years were amazing and our kids showed so much improvement.

Next: The Obstacles Faced In High School