And On to Kindergarten He Goes!!

We had Alex's IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting to determine his placement for Kindergarten. We were quite nervous about what the school district was going to do with him. There have been rumors going around that there wasn't enough room for all the Autistic kids in the Autism unit, so they were going to send some of the higher functioning kids to regular, mainstream kindergarten. Don't get me wrong, the ultimate goal for Alex is to get him in a mainstream class, but he is not ready yet and would have really struggled with it at this point.
The general idea with kids with Autism (and probably any special need) is to give them intensive services and early intervention as much as possible when they are young, then as they progress though elementary school and the upper grades, they are able to transition into and cope with a mainstream setting. However, if they are forced into mainstream too soon, without adequate preparation, they will usually struggle indefinitely. Whereas if they have the proper early intervention services and for a long enough time, they will get to where they don't require any services and they function well in normal settings.
Anyway, we had Alex's IEP meeting, to determine his "fate"... and we were thrilled that they are going to allow him into the small group autism unit, with inclusion in a regular class!! We feel that it is the perfect situation; he will start out spending most of his time in the small group autism unit and gradually increase his time spent in a normal kindergarten. Giving him the opportunity to get used to being in a normal class, but still spending at least half a day in the small group class working on his individual goals to help him progress in his deficient areas. Anyway, I know this doesn't seem like a big thing, but we have been really stressed about it so we are THRILLED that things turned out so well. Alex is sad to be leaving the "warm, cuddly, soft and fuzzy" world of Giant Steps for the big kid elementary school, but he is very excited for Kindergarten!