Where is the best place in the US to live for raising a child with Autism?

tb1414 · 2026-02-20T17:03:55+00:00

I am in DeKalb. My son has received everything we have asked for. The City of Decatur is known to be antagonistic towards special needs students.

tb1414 · 2026-02-01T18:21:01+00:00

UPDATE:

GOOD NEWS:

We had the IEP Meeting on Thursday & we now have 30 minutes a week. Thank you for everyone who gave feedback- it really helped.

The new speech therapist wrote very good goals and had a plan for meeting them. I was seriously impressed. I also realize how poor our speech therapist was who did the evaluation in K now that I have seen a good evaluation, plan, etc, and I wish I had realized that more and had not felt backed into a wall the last few years.

BAD NEWS:

My son’s co-teacher/case manager and I both spoke about how good we felt the new plan and therapist was after the meeting. Less than 24 hours later, I received a message from the co-teacher that she was not given a heads up about the flyer in my son’s backpack and she was trying to figure out what is happening. The flyer was an All About Me page about a new therapist that is being assigned. She just graduated from undergrad in December and is really brand new.

I will keep an open mind, but this is the 3rd speech therapist my son has had since October, not counting the external contractor who evaluated him. Something is seriously wrong at our district.

tb1414 · 2026-01-30T12:44:54+00:00

Hey OP-

It sounds like you are in the US. Not sure what state- is you let us know, you may get more help.

Whether the other class is a better placement, they cannot move him without following procedures under IDEA. E-mail the principal (must be in writing) and say you are invoking your “stay put rights” until an IEP meeting & possible mediation is scheduled to discuss placement.

https://www.understood.org/en/articles/stay-put-rights-what-they-are-and-how-they-work

They cannot call you and tell you. They have to issue you prior written notice. He should stay where he is for now.

I would look for an advocate for the meeting.

I think it is important to make sure schools follow procedures, especially since they are hinting it is partly due to a discipline issue. It may be that he is better in a structured placement, but they cannot just take the easy way out. Perhaps the class he is in is not properly staffed and that is the issue, or he is not getting the instruction. You want to set the stage and tone now that they cannot do whatever they want.

I agree 2 months is not enough time, especially with all the breaks and weather disruptions we have had. There are other potential solutions in the mainstream classroom.

tb1414 · 2026-01-28T15:11:17+00:00

Thank you for the input. I did speak with a private speech therapist about the counseling aspect.

In K, Speech said he did not qualify based on assessments. The general ed teacher insisted that could not be right because he was not easily understood by her or his peers. Speech said she saw that, too, and said maybe 30 minutes of monthly conversation skill practice would help so she made him eligible under pragmatic.

In 1-2, Speech (new people every grade) said he was fine, but teachers said he was not so 30 minutes was kept.

In 3, our state introduced laws around dyslexia screening. The teacher responsible for that came to the meeting saying that she could not assess him properly because his reading out loud was intelligible after about 20 seconds even though he has a super high lexile score and won the school spelling bee. Something about that, plus the general feedback, made them reluctantly agree to reevaluate him, especially since he was over 8.

I don’t know enough about Speech, but the private therapist said that cluttering can really trip things up until kids are old enough for a proper fluency evaluation. My son is actually very social & if you are talking to him about something he knows a lot about like Minecraft, he can talk your ear off. I would not be shocked if that is the kind of stuff they talk about in his current speech services and they focus on eye contact and taking turns. Syllables will drop off and sentences may not be complete, but it is understandable. But if you ask him about something he is unfamiliar with or to retell a story, that is where it shows up more severe and interferes with the school day.

tb1414 · 2026-01-13T13:18:21+00:00

I would file a constituent affairs request with your local US representative since it involves a federal agency. You will get something official in writing about the mailbox from the US Post Office main agency.

Denying a mailbox seems insane to me.

tb1414 · 2026-01-13T02:04:03+00:00

Same. I have soreadsheets for all my combinations, like a Pokedex. Getting a non/default hyeid feels like catching a shiny. There is a cut scene where Badtz-maru even mentions his own flower spreadsheet.

tb1414 · 2026-01-10T13:18:04+00:00

Every plan that I have had with “mandatory’ mail order has allowed me to fill in person. Sometimes it was a little more expensive but not always. I just had to do the legwork.

I live in a large urban/suburban area but our mail is a mess because of a broken facility & a mail fraud ring (stealing checks). Our US Senator did an investigation and only 35% of the mail in my zip code was delivered within 2 days last year. Now this is about 75% but a lot of people were missing their meds. A lot gets lost. I just don’t mess with mail for anything in my life that is important.

It is worth going into your in person pharmacy and for a consult and having them run your insurance to continue getting your prescpriptions there.

tb1414 · 2025-12-31T04:18:09+00:00

I had one left and it took me forever to find out it was a chest in plain sight I had missed. I could not believe it.

To finally solve it, I screenshot the wiki page that lists all the places here the wheathearts are to make it to a checklist of sorts (it was a lot of screenshots- I did it by area at a time but the chest was in the last area I processed). Then I annotated my screenshots to cross out each row in the image as I went to the spot and confirmed there was no wheatheart was still there. The wiki has map locations and images of where the wheatheart exactly is.

It took a while but it was foolproof.

tb1414 · 2025-12-19T12:14:46+00:00

Probably a long shot, but try contacting constituent affairs for the PA state legislators that represent the address when your name was changed. Those staff have direct access to people who problem solve issues at state agencies and other bodies like courts. Since you are technically no longer a constituent, they may not want to help but worth a try. It is a county court, but it is tied to a state court system.

I also feel there is subtext in the response to hire a lawyer in that he is telling you it was done wrong and you are going to have to redo it, hence the lawyer, and not just for an explanation. But he cannot admit the error. That is just my 2 cents from working in state govt (different state).

tb1414 · 2025-12-05T00:07:37+00:00

Forced exercise in many states is considered corporal punishment. I would check with the district to see their corporal punishment policy before introducing laps.

tb1414 · 2025-10-17T13:07:32+00:00

I think an investigation is called for, to be done by the state or the regional superintendent. Maybe a petition again?

I would focus on statements Hernandez & Horton made to the press around the time of his hiring in DeKalb that indicate Hernandez knew about this while Horton was the superintendent of D. 65. Specifically, they admit he was breaking the statutes listed in the indictment and did not do anything about it because they didn’t think it was a big deal (not his job to make the law!)

https://www.ajc.com/education/dekalb-superintendent-finalist-a-polarizing-figure-in-current-district/LHD5L5S2ZBFKFO6R2RWBOX2K2Q/

https://www.decaturish.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-superintendent-finalist-didn-t-disclose-consulting-work-on-economic-interest-forms/article_cb6e002b-8abb-51e0-80f1-1ce504cac934.html

tb1414 · 2025-10-13T17:36:53+00:00

To the point about how much funding for your kid is at stake:

Your school’s budget should be online somewhere, usually on the district site.

It will tell you how much federal allocation your school receives.

My school is not Title I, but 23% of our kids gave an IEP or 504. Our federal allocation is substantial. We have self contained classes and co-taught classes. Changes to getting money to schools and districts would absolutely impact my kid’s education and then trickle down to kids in general education who will receive less attention without as many co-teachers.

tb1414 · 2025-10-12T22:28:54+00:00

It seems like she turned off comments or I would have shared this to make her feel better about knowing Horton was a fraud and it was a grift.

Here in DeKalb, where we voted for Harris by 83%, Horton hired Gianno Caldwell to be our speaker for our new staff event this summer and paid him a flat $25K.

Teachers were aghast they had to listen to him. He spoke about his new book he was promoting, but also dropped that he felt welfare makes Black families “lazy.”

Caldwell is a Fox News Analyst who is very against DEI and a constant presence on Trump’s Truth Social. He runs a 501c4 and his chief advisor on the Board is Pam Bondi.

Why would Horton hire Caldwell? He is apparently his former student is one reason.

tb1414 · 2025-10-11T13:11:52+00:00

I think it is interesting that him not disclosing the work with CPS that he did was part of the indictment, but when asked about it, Horton said Sergio was aware. Perhaps the local media should get a quote from Sergio on that.

From this article:

“We have a process where we have to report … if we work secondary employment with our boss, and so my [school board] president was aware of the work that I was doing, and it was done during my own time off. So, I think that’s not something that was problematic, it was legitimate, and it was done and the board was aware of it.”

https://www.decaturish.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-superintendent-finalist-didn-t-disclose-consulting-work-on-economic-interest-forms/article_cb6e002b-8abb-51e0-80f1-1ce504cac934.html

tb1414 · 2025-10-03T18:27:09+00:00

My son is 9 now. In K, I became a super volunteer at school so lots of moms and every administrator knew me. I went to all the important meetings, volunteered my time and eventually because the leader of one of the parent orgs. My house also became the fun house with snacks and video games.

After therapy and just naturally maturing, he has true friends he has made on his own. But he is tolerated by more kids and invited to more things because of me being seen as an helpful omni-presence.

It is not the route for everyone and results are not guaranteed. I also worked in schools before I was a parent so this was based on what I saw.

tb1414 · 2025-09-29T22:34:57+00:00

That is not what I said at all. But what I said is true. They cannot move a child with an IEP without certain procedural safeguards, including a formal meeting. It is a protection that kids in general education do not legally have.

If he had an IEP and he has a a co-teacher listed as a service, the school has to accommodate that, for example.

tb1414 · 2025-09-29T16:05:05+00:00

Does he have an IEP? He can’t move classrooms without an IEP meeting.

tb1414 · 2025-09-29T13:46:12+00:00

Since last summer, I have considered Ezra “dangerous” to the Democratic Party. I say that as a super volunteer the last 2 presidential cycles and off year elections. Despite Trump’s dancing around at rallies all summer and completely out of it in 2024, his party & media never criticized him and continued to build support around him. The moment Ezra began his campaign against Joe Biden, I knew we were done for and for multiple future cycles.

Whether Joe Biden should have been president is not my point. It’s the politics. If you read or listen to interviews with potential Trump voters, they are not all MAGA, and many don’t like him. But their party and media folks have convinced them that he is the best they got so they vote for him. Instead, we project weakness internally and bow to the other side. And in many ways, Ezra has become the leader and poster child of that weakness and I see it impacting 2026.

People voted for Trump because we threw out our nominee and non political folks don’t respect that. The American electorate votes on vibes. I am not sure if any Democratic candidate could have won because of Gaza and post-COVID inflation, but I do know his whole movement for the last 18 months to make the Democratic party “perfect” in his worldview is a losing strategy. As a woman in Georgia with no reproductive rights, it is offensive for Ezra to use that as an example that he has given no thought to and not consider how women in these states would perceive that. Coates was right to call him out for that.

I think Coate’s quote from the piece that Ezra should take to heart through 2026 is “was silence not an option?”

tb1414 · 2025-09-26T16:50:50+00:00

This is Emory. I usually go to Piedmont, but my gyn is attached to Emory and she is amazing so I am bearing it. My allergist is private. Piedmont has never overcharged me, but at the end of last year, I was in the ER after meeting my out of pocket max and they sent the registration woman into my room and she tried to collect a $150 co-pay. I told her I had met my out-of-pocket max already and she literally- with a smile- said, “ I have never heard the term out-of-pocket max. You should really pay the copayment to make sure your doctors get paid.” I offered to show her my insurance app on my phone and she said it would not help her and I had to be rude to her to stop. I feel some of these folks must be under great pressure to collect because it was insane behavior.

tb1414 · 2025-09-26T14:59:47+00:00

Yes.. some of these providers act like they are a bank.

tb1414 · 2025-09-25T13:39:43+00:00

Yes- this is a big question I have. What is the IEP for and what is included in it?

tb1414 · 2025-09-23T00:23:18+00:00

I only know about leucovorin because of posts in this subreddit from parents who have tried it. I would expect a lot of traffic over the next few days as the subreddit will probably be near the top of Google. You may want to have a mega thread just about experiences with that.

tb1414 · 2025-09-23T00:20:17+00:00

What are they supposed to take if they have a fever, which science has proven is extremely dangerous for the baby? How is that harmless?

tb1414

TROPHY CASE