Tonight's episode of Dateline covered young me with autism who were "aging out" of school when they turned 21. The episode highlighted two families' struggles with finding services for the sons after they turned 21. All parents of special needs students should be watch this episode of Dateline. This affects young people with intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, and other developmental disabilities.
We had a transition meeting at Elijah's last ARD meeting (IEP meeting) back in February. Elijah attended the ARD and I asked that a representative from the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) to attend his ARD. The DARS representative works only with students who are deaf and hard of hearing. I signed consent for her to meet with Elijah at the high school next year and in the years to follow. I am hoping that we can come up with a plan for him for after graduation. Elijah can stay in school until the age of 21 since he is under special education. I don't know if he will need to stay in school until he is 21 or graduate when he completes four years of high school and passes his classes. He will be 19 at that time. He repeated second grade back in elementary school.
Like the moms in the Dateline episode I have educated myself on Elijah's rights and am his strongest advocate. I also have my experience as a teacher in special education to assist me. I am not sure how parents who don't have this background navigate the system. I don't usually write about work, but I do worry about my own students. All I can do is try to educate the parents as best I can.
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