I have two beautiful young children. Both with blonde hair...blue eyes.... smiles that light up a room. Oh - and they have autism.
My son is now in grade one at a mainstream school in Queensland. After 2 years of early intervention therapy (and lots of money spent, as you are probably all aware), we felt that he was ready for school. Boy, were we in for a shock! Noah immediately shut down as soon as we transitioned him from his safe special education centre, where he was in a class of 4 to a mainstream school with a class of 24 children!
Our last year has been a HUGE struggle and Noah now spends 5 days a week in his special education unit. Most of these days he is alone in an empty room. Many children like Noah do not qualify as intellectually impaired - so they are not able to attend a special school. The problem is that my son is also not able to attend a mainstream school. In QLD there is no "plan C".
As a determined mother, I am demanding a change. I want to have a plan C for my children. I have started a facebook page "Autism Schools - Demanded in QLD" and I have started petitions and campaigns to demand autism specific schools in QLD. These government funded schools are offered in many states in Australia... but are not yet available to the hundreds of QLD children who need them. I have only begun this fight to 'fill the gap' but I am determined not to spend the next 12 years of my children's school life living day to day like this.
Brisbane, Australia