Schools and Jobs and Finding Them………
November 12, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Adolescence, Education, Family, New Jersey, Parenting, Work
As I note regularly here, finding the right school and teachers for Charlie, and making sure the education he’s receiving is appropriate, challenging, tailored to his needs, are our constant concern. ABC News visits the Community School in Decatur, Georgia; the school was the subject of a recent article in the New York Times magazine. The school doesn’t seem quite suited to what Charlie might need, but the focus on educating older—adolescent, teenaged—autistic students really interests me. Sometimes it seems the last time that most of us felt sort of confident that we had an idea about the right sort of educational setting and programming for Charlie was when he was preschool age—–elementary and now middle school remain territory for which there’s only a very rough map.
Learning about a career event in New Jersey that was attended by autistic students and other disabled students turns my mind to even more concerns. The event was held at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. in East Hanover in honor of national Disability Mentoring Day. There were 17 other national sponsors present and 50 New Jersey companies at the event, which was overseen by the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and, within New Jersey, by Allies, Inc., which advocates for people with disabilities and their families.
Yeah, more to think about—-more new terrain to step into, after I take a really deep breath.
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield