I Can't Do What The School Can!

That is the most common reason given/heard for not homeschooling kids with autism.  And be aware, this topic may cover a few days.

First I'm going to explain to you what the school day is like for a typical special needs kid, in a confined classroom, up through 6th grade.  Or what it was like for my son, in multiple schools.

First they arrive at school and are taken to their classroom.  This can be anywhere from half an hour before the bell to just before the bell.  In some classrooms, the teacher and aides try to provide breakfast during that time.  In other classrooms the first half hour after the bell was "breakfast" time.  Most families with special needs kids qualify for free or reduce lunches.  While we did because of food allergies we rarely ever used it.  In fact, the school was only allowed to provide safe drinks for my son and the occasional salad.

Now that food is in them the teacher typically starts a lesson that lasts about a half hour.  Then the kids are broken up into smaller groups that will work on other things for another half hour or so.  This will go on throughout the day with some segments being only 15 minutes long.  Included in there will be recess, sensory time, therapy time, lunch, another snack and then PE.  It sounds like so much to do until you hit practicality.

Even in the most efficient classroom my son was in, there was a lot of wasted time as kids moved from activity to activity.  A half hour scheduled typically became 20 minutes in practice.  And even less if one or more of the kids were having a bad day.  While the teachers would try to make sure that the kids got one on one time with them it normally ended up only being about 15 minutes a day.  And maybe another 15 minutes of one on one time with an aide.  I can't even count how many times doing an activity ended up completely dropped and the focus shifted to keeping the calm when a child (or two) began acting out.  Or how many times a day ended up improvised because the teacher got pulled out for meetings and things went sideways.  But honestly the worst was when there were time constraints, so the kids got "helped" to finish an activity.

My son typically spent time with an aide who was also helping at least two other kids.  Since he was typically calm he didn't get the focus of their attention because they were expending energy trying to get the other kids on task.  But calm didn't mean my son was on task, just that he wasn't causing as many problems.

Now, please understand, I don't blame the teachers or aides for this.  They are overworked.  They have a classroom full of children who need one on one teaching and not enough adults to provide it.  They try the best they can with the tools they have.  They are torn between parents who want their child to do well and administrators who want it done for as cheaply as possible.  And in some states by BOEs that have "guidelines" that the teachers are evaluated on that have nothing to do with what a child actually needs.

But yes, you can do what the school can.  You can do it at home.  And you can do it better.  And honestly, I have a longer school day with my son but it's filled with energy and sensory breaks that let him concentrate better on the hard parts.  You can design the school day however works best for your and your child which means if reading works better in the morning and math at night then that's when you do them.

What is even better than all of that is that most likely you can do it, and do it better, while lowering both your stress levels and those of your child.  I've got to say that one thing I really don't miss is the continual meetings (fights) to get services for my son.  Now there are no fights.  If I want it done, I do it.

Tomorrow I'll go over how I determined my son's actual skill levels and some issues we ran into during the first few months.  And how we overcame them.