Sunday, September 06, 2009

Schools cope with challenge of educating autistic students

A good article about education, with the focus on a mom with three autistic boys in Colorado. It makes a couple of good points regarding the financial cost to school districts, but also the virtues of intervention:

"Districts that have the reputation of being the best at educating special needs children downplay their successes, afraid they’ll be inundated with applications and encounter even more budget problems. And Lehman says districts also don’t emphasize how much they spend on special needs children because some families of children without disabilities get upset that less money goes for programs for their children.

But for Teresa and Patrick Wright, the money spent to educate autistic and other special-needs children is money well spent. She predicts that Joshua will be able to live independently and attend college because of the instruction he’s received, and each time district experts meet with her to discuss the boys’ Individual Education Programs, she is heartened."

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