Best school district Autism
Thank you in advance for your help. I have an almost 4 year old autistic daughter (preschool age). I am trying to figure out where to move as i have to move to berkeley, albany, el cerrito, lafayette, moraga, orinda, or walnut creek soon due to location of work. I am looking for a location with the best school district for autistic children. One of the most important considerations for me is an environmental with NO bullying in class or on playground and inclusion and acceptance from peers. I theoretically like the idea of inclusion but has to be in an environment that is not sensory overwhelming. My daughter is verbal but in stages 1 and 2 of gestalt language acquisition, great at memorization, loves singing and acting out books, loves books and nature, very gentle, very emotionally sensitive, easy to get sensory overload to too much noise or wildness, socially anxious with other kids, very sweet and pretty patient, does well with kind, gentle, loving adults and calm and kind kids, possible pda and possible inattentive type adhd but not sure).
Any advice i'm incredibly grateful for. Thank you
Parent Replies
I am a BUSD parent, but I don't have a neurodivergent child. I will say my kids had autistic classmates in elementary and it seemed like they were pretty well supported. The classes are small, the teachers were mostly kind and caring and patient. Berkeley kids on the whole tend to be very accepting of differences. Our HS is absolutely huge. I think BHS can be an incredibly overwhelming place with 3200 students and it's tough even for the neurotypical kids to navigate. I knew one family who had an ADHD child who did well at a BUSD elementary school, but middle school was tough and they didn't even attempt BHS and went with a small private high school. So that's all to say, I would look at each level, not just elementary. I think Berkeley schools get worse as the kids get older.
Hi - I live just outside your desired area so I can’t recommend my school district. However, I do highly recommend that you join a terrific group on Facebook and ask your question there as well. It is called East Bay Autism Parents and is full of parents who are on similar journeys with their kids.
My son attends an elementary school in Albany (he is going into 1st grade) is in SDC classroom, and we've been very happy with them over the last year. I can't say if Albany is the best district because we never had experience with other districts but on the program delivery side we have always been happy with them, the special education admin has had some hiccups but we have been always able to communicate clearly and overall get our needs met in a way that we were satisfied with as parents, he attended the SDC classroom in preschool for two years in Albany as well and while the aides and specialists were very good, there was a lot of turnover in the SDC teacher position itself, not sure why, and not certain if this was the case over the last school year. Albany Disability Squad is the local Facebook support group that I would suggest you check out to get some thoughts as well.
Good luck!