Steve and I went to observe a program for Ian for next year. It’s a transitional program for kids with high functioning autism or those with a few autistic-like characteristics. It’s housed in a regular elementary school. It’s a small school; it’s only for Kindergarten and first grade. The kids in the special needs classes are brought into the regular classrooms for their strong areas and then they work on their issues in the special needs class.

We’re not thrilled with having Ian in a special class. He’s higher functioning than the kids we observed today, but if he spends a lot of time in the regular classroom that might be okay.

Our other option was to keep him in a regular kindergarten here in town, but have a aide to help him out.

I think we’re going to go with the special program, because the school was so much better than our school in town. It is located in a wealthy area. It will mean a longer bus ride for poor Ian, but he’s going to have access to a better education. It’s a small school aimed at kids in the lower grades. They have an amazing program for informing parents about the kid’s progress and at-home training for parents. The staff were smart, energetic, and eager to please. It was a well-oiled machine. In this town, I would have set up systems to coordinate Ian’s therapists and create plans for parent-teacher coordination, because nothing exists like that here. His teacher here would have no training in dealing with unevenly skilled children, so I would have to educate her or bring in a consultant to help her.

This program isn’t going to be cheap. I think we finally have a friend in the administration, and I’m really grateful to her.

Steve walked and I walked away from the meeting thinking the same thing — our present school system isn’t good enough. For the most part, we’re very content in this town. Great house, good commute to work, regular folks in town. Should we move to a pricier town just for the schools?