Janey's school

Here's a link to a PBS Newshour segment about Janey's school...

I'm hoping the link works this time---I'm having a huge amount of trouble figuring out how to make text into a link!

Okay---I tested it and it finally seems to work!!! After only about an hour of fooling around trying to figure out how to do it...

I loved this segment. Janey doesn't appear in it, but so many other kids and teachers I care a lot about do. It was making me reflect, as I often do, how incredibly lucky we are that Janey goes to the Henderson School. It was also making me feel sad for all the many, many, many kids like Janey that doesn't get a great education. It's not fair. Every school in the world should be a good school. As the segment mentions, inclusion doesn't cost more than non-inclusion. And it's not even just inclusion that's the issue. I know there are great classrooms for kids with autism out there that are not inclusion classrooms, but as is the case with inclusion classrooms, not enough of them.

But just personally, we are so lucky. Janey didn't have a diagnosis when she started at the Henderson. She was just a sibling of Freddy. When she was diagnosed, we didn't have to move her, we didn't have to fight for services, we didn't have to send her to a school we weren't familiar with. We were able to keep her right where she was, with teachers and staff I'd known for 8 years at that point. She is getting the best education she possibly could, and is cared for and loved and appreciated. I will never, never take that for granted.