I would soon be coming to the USA and stay with my son. I wish to put my grandson (age 5) who has some mental instability in a school in San Jose or San Diego. Will a private school or a charter school accept him, or should I put him in a public school? Is every public school required by law or other provisions to take in children with mental disabilities?
Special Education - 2 Answers
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1
My advice is to start with a public school. You don't metion what the disability is, but they are usually the best equipped to handle a wider range of issues. You also don't make it clear if the child is already in the US (in which case he may already be recieving services through the public schools) or if he is coming with you or if he has been in school before. By enrooling in public schools, they will evaluate and asses your grandson's needs. If they find he qualifies, they will be legally bound to provide him the best education in the least restrictive enviroment. Now, that doesn't mean it all comes together right away. They are allowed a limited amount of time to test and then decide on what services he qualifies for and needs. He will then have access to speech therapists, child psychologists and other specialists who have some experience in working with kids with special needs. By law, even the teacher must have some level of training to work have special needs students in her class, but that is not always the case in reality. However, the public school system gives you a legal frame work to get services and federal as well as state laws to back you up when there are problems. Private schools, especially ones that do not specifically deal with special needs students, are not legally bound to provide any extra services or have teachers trained to work with the students. Many schools will accept children with limited special needs, but any additional services such as speech, PT or working with a therapist would have to be paid for by the family. If possible, visit the website for the school districts you are interested in. You can also look for specialized private schools as well as contact other private schools you may wish to consider to find out if they accpet students with needs similar to your grandson's. Email will let you gather a fair amount of information ahead of time from a variety of sources. Get it, organize it and when you finally arrive you can have a list of places you want to visit personally as well as contacts ready to go if you choose the public schools. Good luck and have a safe move.
2
Go with a public school. Private schools probably won't help him. Montessori schools are too unstructured.
