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Ecki Stern
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Ecki commented on the article |Since Kayla's been accepted to The Center For Discovery here in upstate NY, I'm hoping she'll be working on The Farm in her future. Personally, I have no problem with her being in this particular intentional community. I know that the program works hard to interact with the general community. I think it's wonderful that the program shows the community that by working together, no matter what a person's ability, something wonderful can be created.
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Ecki commented on the article |Completely relating to your frustration as we are in the same situation with Kayla. We want her in a private placement and the school district is willing. But trying to get her in really does seem to be harder than getting into Harvard!
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Ecki commented on the article |It always seems everyone is afraid to write anything in the communication books because it is "official documentation". Every now and then I'll get a nice detailed of Kayla's day. Fortunately I pick her up once a week, so I can get a better feel for how she is doing. Wondering how communication will be when we enter Kindy in September.
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Ecki commented on the article |In Ohio, they are spending money to remove the name "mentally retarded" from their agencies:
http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2009/07/09/news/nh1146654.txt
Is that the most efficient use of funds at this time?
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Ecki commented on the article |According to rumors, the cost of Kayla's school will be either $80K or $100K depending on which school we end up with (the private school is having a swine flu issue and has halted the admissions process). Supposedly $20K is for busing alone (which I don't get because our schooo district already transports at least one child to either school). And the 80K option is actually a public school (BOCES) but out of district hence the hefty price tag.
However, we are in a rural district, so the costs of implementing a class for just HER would be much more. According to the disability report which is included in the school budget announcement, they only transport 5 kids total K - 12 out of district.
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Ecki commented on the article |Consistency is so important for our kids. Last year Kayla's PreK had a staffing issue and she went through 3 special ed teachers and 4 different 1:1 aides. She didn't make a whole lot of progress that year. This year she's had the same teacher and aide all year (and during last year's ESY and this year's ESY) and has done so well developmentally. I'm wondering how far she'll regress having to change schools for Kindy next year.
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Ecki commented on the article |Well, I've commented on this before, so I won't go into it again. But since my kid has Down syndrome in addition to autism, I already know what would happen.
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Ecki commented on the article |After speaking to a few other parents, I discovered that our district is declassifying most kids with an autism diagnosis if they want to stay at the local school, esp. if they are "higher functioning"! They are lucky to get a 504. I'm sort of flabbergasted by this since we've always had very good interactions (although they did put my older daughter with PDD-NOS on a 504). I'm assuming the ramifications of this is that there are no IEPs to deal with and have to live up to. If there is no IEP, does that mean they do not have to do a functional behavioral analysis or implement behavioral intervention plans?
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Ecki commented on the article |I actually hope this tidbit of info stays out of the mainstream news. I hate it when "other people" read stuff like that and pity me, and are secretly glad that it's not them because they "couldn't handle" all that stress. Please. They can't do scientific studies on how much love, understanding, compassion, depth, and enlightenment comes from raising a child with disabilities.
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Ecki commented on the article |A personal note about bike riding. My 7 year old daughter with a PDD-NOS diagnosis just learned to ride her bike without training wheels last week. She's been out riding every day since. And she's had ZERO meltdowns in school or at home and a few of her lingering repetitive behaviors have stopped (finger flicking and repeating phrases from TV). Coincidence?
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