I continue to be shocked at the perception that parents of kids with special needs at the other end of the spectrum have a walk in the park and that an appropriate education for these kids is a given.
My kid with Down syndrome would have been parked in a class with a completely inappropriate education in the district we moved from. Our only alternative was to put him in private school for the past 5 years and fund a 1:1 aide, including her health insurance some of those years, at obviously an extreme financial sacrifice. The speech therapy he received from the public school was far less than adequate, so we paid that out of pocket. While I am currently filling out the DYS application that will provide free advocacy for his big sister, there was no such thing for him. We paid for advocacy and educational consultants ourselves.
Now he is an excellent public school district--but again, the idea that he will automatically be given what he needs is just unfathomable. This kid has tons of potential, but because of a significant speech delay and other issues, he will also need tons of advocacy to make sure that expectations are high. And the money invested in his education by taxpayers now will provide a great return on investment when he is able to work and live independently.
FWIW, a friend who is a surgeon told me that the best scrub tech she knows has Down sydrome--do you seriously think that without an appropriate education and job training in public schools that that individual would have had that opportunity?
Thanks MON, aculady and ABQmom for speaking up on this issue.
