Hello all! We just wanted to post a little something about the difficulties of finding after school care for an autistic child. I am taking special care not to use the names of any of the facilities in question, however, this is more of a choice for legality. I’d really love to smear the names of these child care facilities all over the internet, but I won’t.
This has been my experience: I disclose ALL of Gavin’s issues, his social inconsistencies, the fact that he is NOT completely potty trained, his ways of escaping or getting attention, his stims…everything. The director of the facility then indicates that they are sure they can handle that, no problems, just a few adjustments and a careful eye…now give me my registration fee (which is usually non-refundable). After a few weeks I am told that I have X amount of time to "fix" my child or they can no longer keep him there. Oddly enough, I am usually not given any reports of misbehavior at all, nor have any of the adjustments they promised have been made. So what happens….we pull him out and go to another facility, where the same thing happens.
Here are the facts: the rate of children born in the autism spectrum is RISING not decreasing. However, child care facilities are simply not preparing themselves to handle those numbers. I also am finding that while the facilities CLAIM they are not discriminating against my child…I highly doubt that normal children are asked to leave after a first offense or report of misbehavior. Of course, without taking on an expensive lawyer, there’s no way to prove that, and that is just not within my budget. So, like many families of autistic children everywhere, we are just left to take it in the rear.
I say let’s rally. I’m no longer satisfied to sit in on parent meetings about where we can find good therapies for our children. Autism is a beast raging against us, holding us captive, making us prisoners of case workers and paperwork. It should not be this difficult. There needs to be a change. Parents, we need to cry out, not cry ourselves to sleep, wondering if the next call from our daycares will be the call that causes us to quit our jobs and home school our kids.
Our children can’t speak for themselves, we need to speak for them, we need to encourage state agencies, child care facilities and whoever else will listen to make changes. Isn’t your child worth at least that?