I have worked very hard to form a good relationship with the general education teachers on campus, but there have been two students in the last four years whose behavior and social struggles in school just SCREAMED “autism.”

When I raised the concern that they should perhaps speak to our school psychologist, their teacher insisted that it (talking out of turn, making unrelated comments, sensory-seeking stuff like fidgeting, poor organization) was simply bad behavior.

To them, “autism” still means “classic” autism, and unfortunately I’ve met some teachers who do not want to change that view. A child whose autism isn’t CLASSIC must be simply unwilling to behave as their neurotypical peers do.

(Both students have since moved on to middle school, undiagnosed, lonely, and outcast, unfortunately.)

The bottom line is that ASD kids are resource intensive. They need a lot of 1 on 1 teaching, and lots of extra training for the teachers/paras/OT’s/etc.

And in the face of tight budgets, every time you can force one kid on the spectrum into home schooling, you’ve saved the school district the same amount of money it spends on 2 or 3 neurotypical kids.

The irony is that, when viewed globally, it is a very shortsighted plan. For every student that is “forced” into home shcooling, another one will be labeled as “behaviorally disordered” and sent to a warehouse school until they are “aged out”. That student, instead of becoming a productive, tax paying member of society, then becomes a burden to society, because they have never been taught effectively. They’ll end up saving $20,000/year on support services for about 15 years, and then will spend $30,000/year for the next 50-60 years of their life to take care of them.