From the Washington Post:

Increasing numbers of Washington-area parents say public schools are failing their children with mild autism, and are turning to private programs that provide help with social and emotional skills.

The parents say public school general education classes  weren’t providing appropriate support, leaving kids feeling depressed, vulnerable, and socially isolated.

Kathleen Atmore said she decided to place her 11-year-old son with autism in a private program after he began racewalking through the halls at his public school to avoid teasing and asking her if she ever thought about dying.

“Kids with social communication disorders want to be okay,” [Atmore] said, “but they need help. And schools need to recognize that in order to help them they have to tend to their social and emotional world. There’s no other way to do it. It’s not about the academics.”

(Washington Post photo)

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 4:58 pm and is filed under autism, education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.