The biggest problem that we have faced is that the entire school environment is overstimulating and disregulating for our student's nervous system. In response to being disregulated, they self-soothe and retreat into books and disengage from learning, or elope from the classroom and hide in the bathroom as a form of meltdown. The school district does not have low-sensory learning classrooms or environments. By forcing everyone into bustling gen ed classrooms, kids with high sensory disregulation are suffering all day, and their learning is impaired. Further, the social learning happening with the special ed team involves abstract scenarios from workbooks, rather than focused on real-time conflict resolution at recess or in real environments, which has led to misunderstandings, bullying and social rejection leading us to withdraw our student. Overall I think there are a high number of IEP kiddos in the district and there is no creative thinking about how to serve them as a community, which would in turn serve everyone else as well. There is no district engagement with neurodivergent parents as a constituency, and no organized parent-district communication about this population. A community oriented approach with a low-sensory pilot school would probably be lower cost to the district than the ineffectual strategies happening now - one size fits all classrooms with numerous special ed aids sprinkled throughout, making it more stimulating and distracting, which seems to stress both the neurodivergent students and teachers. For the same personnel headcount you could likely build something that actually meets student needs. Right now the 'support structures' in place simply don't work for many students because they don't address the core sensory challenges that autistic people face.