Schools can’t handle situations like this properly.
The new stupid model of putting ‘special needs’ kids into regular classes is a horrendous mistakes. Teachers spend 90% of their time with one kid while the rest suffer.
If you already have trouble relating to other kids or are shy then this does not help.
This mainstreaming policy is not just to any of the kids
My parents tried to mainstream in the first grade; but by the 2nd grade, I was transferred to a special ed school and stayed there until I was a sophmore in high school. I am glad they did because by high school I was able to handle it.
The Okeechobee Achievement Academy’s web page indicates that it is a center for the placement of students who have already had problems at their original schools. Usually this type of school is used in place of expulsion. It’s a second chance school.
From their web page:
“Okeechobee Achievement Academy is committed to providing our students a positive, stimulating, and safe learning environment that promotes the development of individual responsibility, acceptable social skills, and academic growth. Upon returning to their former schools, students will be able to make appropriate decisions and experience success in completing their education.”
If the student is autistic, he was in a small group classroom with other Special Ed students. He had an aide and teacher in the classroom, who would have been trained in calming students and keeping them from harming themselves and others.
All indications is that he was not in a regular classroom. He was not mainstreamed.
"Mainstreaming," they call it. It's not fun. I mean, some kids do okay, but there's about 30% who are really a handful.
I agree. In some instances, children with such low functionality that they literally cannot tie their own shoes or hold a crayon are forced upon teachers with the demand that they teach them arithmetic and document their (required) progress.
It's all about the Benjamins.
I’ve been trying to explain that to Japanese elementary schools for years :p