My wife teaches integrated special education in Northern Connecticut. Recommends looking for a school system that offers public PreK to ensure your child gets started with services. Most districts will host an initial PPT and then propose additional testing as needed. For students with autism the VBMAPP program is often implemented and highly effective in creating meaningful progress. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech and language services can all be provided within the school day with peer and teacher modeling to positively impact social behaviors. You also have the right to request a PPT at any time if you feel additional support is needed. Best wishes to you and your family!!

I work as a sub paraprofessional in Farmington and I’d definitely recommend the district. All of the kids are really cared for. For example, everyone makes the effort to get to know the all of the kids names, even if they are support staff and don’t directly work with them every day. Also, all of the special ed teachers I’ve worked with in the district have gone above and beyond. For example, while working in the special ed classroom during summer school, every Friday we would have water play outside with popsicles and once a week we’d do a “cooking activity.” In addition to traditional class work, all of them went out of their way to help students feel like it was just another camp.

Also, kids in Unionville go to the Farmington district schools so you could also consider moving there! I can’t speak to any other districts but I know that Avon is a safe and comfortable town.

Finally, don’t be afraid to directly contact the head of special education at any of the schools you are considering. They can set up a tour and help talk you through any of your concerns.

Hard no on sending your kid to school in Hartford ❌

There's a guy named Kevin who works with autistic kids in Connecticut. He's 6'8 and he's abusive. He beat up my nephew. My nephew is 11. He's a piece of crap look out for him do not let him near your kids. You can't miss him big goofy looking douchebag.

If you reach out to Benhaven, they’ve worked with many different school districts and may be able to help.

They also have a school, an academy, and a residential program.

In a similar boat, how well the school system ranks is a good proxy for how well they deal with this. Avoid any CT cities the schools are abysmal in comparison to the burbs.

Avon etc has a overlay school system with magnets arts etc potentially a better fit for your child.

I had clients that were in a similar situation and arrived on Cheshire but were also looking into Wallingford. I sent you a PM with more info.

Weston

Check out Facebook group special needs parents of Connecticut. Anything kids related, Facebook is better.

If u call 211 they can help. They have a lot of resources to direct you to the services your looking for.

I have ton of experience and insight into this area, my son is going to graduate this summer, and we were told this was never going to happen.

We're in Middletown, our experience started out with Moody School telling us our child was weird and he couldn't be in school. As it turns out this is quite illegal. The school requested a "mental" evaluation, where they paid for an expert, that rendered an opinion that no only turned out for completely false, but favored the school. This started a battle that lasted a few years and to the dismissal of the principal.

We had access to the Yale Child Center, which is one of the leading Autism research centers in the world (check out their robotics work for non-verbal, low functioning children, it's amazing.) We had a parallel report and evaluation done and this proved to be a keystone in our continual fight over the next twelve years.

Once your child has been identified, you will need that paperwork to deal with the school district. Our son attended Benhaven for a few years until he was ready to start transitioning, with a Para, into regular school. So what was needed in between? Here's a quick guide to help you.

Special Education services are run at the state level and filter down to the district level. They will fight you tooth and nail through the entire process. My suggestion is this:

Bring a laptop. At EVERY meeting with the school, take a roll call - the get the name and title, and function of everyone at the meeting. Get contact information. Note the date and the time. Record the information in the meeting like a court recorder would. I cannot tell you how many times, early on, where someone said something, and I was able to recall the information up and dispute in the meeting.

Do not give in to some of the strong arm tactics. When school district thought we were going to sue them, they ambushed us with with the district lawyer and intentionally set up the room where we were encircled by the administration. After everyone arrived, I moved all of the tables to the wall, except for one, and set the room up where it was more favorable for us, once they announced the lawyer, I started recording the video and audio and that never happened again.

Do not be afraid to discuss the possibility of having legal council there. We never brought a lawyer, but we discussed it several times. Eventually, we had zero shenanigans from the school. This is where meticulous documentation comes in. I scanned all the documents they provided to us, and all the information I recorded into Evernote and that gave me instant search.

Many of the teachers and paras are great, but they are overworked and do not have an appropriate support system. Over the past twelve years, this has improved, in particular with the student who received national attention for the scream room incident (he was in my Son's class at Benhaven).

Always get a second opinion on any diagnosis. Never let the school distribute medication. Save, retain and archive all documentation and assume the district is not working in favor of your child. Once the district sees that you are not a push over (for horror stories, talk to single moms with daughters on the spectrum in any Autism support group), the district will not pursue their angle, because you provide too much resistance. In most cases they expect you to be disengaged, once they realize you aren't, most barriers drop. Also, feel free to not except things that are proposed during the PPT meetings. There were plenty of times, we flat out said "no" and proposed an alternate - all of which were accepted.

Hope this helps and welcome to Connecticut.

[deleted]

Thank you 😊

Thank you!

Thanks so much!

Thank you, Ddnt think of this!

Thank you! I appreciate your insight on the process

Thank you so much!

Your very welcome.