Autism-Are+teachers+and+staff+of+public+schools+prepared?

Shena Miller Sonja Mack English 112 February 6, 2012 Autism: Are teachers and staff of public schools prepared?

The law requires that schools only provide a child with a Chevy, not a Cadillac. This means that a child with autistic needs will most likely get an adequate education based on someone else’s vision of what adequate looks like.

Children who have autistic needs may or may not get the proper education they need if they attend a public school. Every child has the right to attend a public school, but are the teachers and staff properly trained to teach or even handle an autistic child? Autistic children have special needs. So let’s ask ourselves, is a public school with hundreds of children who may not have any special needs, be the right place for an autistic child? Children with autism handle situations with aggression and even have problems with social interaction. Parents want their child with autism to be treated the same as if they were a “normal” child. Sending them to a public school would likely be more of a challenge for the staff and the student with the autistic needs.

Looking at local schools around Northern Michigan, it seems that the faculty and staff is not well organized or prepared for the students who walk through the doors each year. Every person or teacher in the school should have some kind of background education for special needs children if they are going to work in any school system. Debra Wilson, from East Jordan, has a fourteen year old son with autism that attends East Jordan public schools. She has been struggling with the school system on getting the proper education and attention for her son. Debra is in a bind with trying to figure out if she should up root her family so her son can get the education he needs with his disability. This is an example of the findings in the public school systems around Northern Michigan, teachers either don’t want to deal with these children, are not willing to get the training they need to handle them, or maybe the public school systems just do not have the money to put forth in paying for the help these children could get.

Why are teachers and other staff members in these public schools not prepared? Why do children with these special needs have to find a different school to attend so they can get the proper education they need? Public schools should be prepared to take on any challenges that each individual child has when they enter the building. It is almost as if these children are being discriminated against because of the disability they have and of the situation they are under. Public schools say that every child has the right to attend. Why do they say this when certain children have different needs for teachers and staff to teach.

Autism affects 1 in 150 children in the United States. The majority of these children attend a public school, mostly because of the fact it’s free. To get the education the children need the parents would have to try to get the child in a private school which costs thousands of dollars each year to attend. Although putting autistic children in a public school system would be cheaper, the private schools are more reliable and have trained professionals who will make sure autistic children get the proper education they deserve. In the best programs, teachers make sure they are working closely with the children’s parents. These children work on language, adaptive, social and emotional, and academic skills. Then the teacher logs each result of progress of what is working and what is not. Even though children with autistic needs have every right going to public schools, the private schools are where they are going to get the discipline, respect, and education they deserve.

Parents can fight the public school systems all they want to get the proper education they think their autistic children need. But when the facts and papers are laid out on the table, the public schools just do not have the proper or extra funding for the programs these children need. If the parents want to make sure their children get what they need to succeed with their disability; sending them to a more private school that is well trained for autism children is more logical. Then maybe these special children can grow up and have the life they deserve.