minniebride
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 4, 2009
- Messages
- 2,250
Hi there,
I am an autism specialist for a large urban school district. We currently service around 150 students on the spectrum from Pre-K to high school (nuts, huh?)
Anyways, as we are getting to the end of the school year, I am starting to plan for next year. We are very proud of our program & also of our wonderful staff & students. We have a handful of very involved parents, but the majority of our parents are just not involved in their child's education. Many are very poor, not educated, single parents, either on welfare or working 3 jobs, and there are also some who are just not plain interested. I've been thinking about how to get our parents more involved, provide them with more training & education on their children. I thought about doing a support group, but I'm very weary about offering advice on specific home problems, without seeing them myself, being able to assess them before I give them advice that I feel good about. I would LOVE to find a way, though, to help educate them about the disorder itself & also on what local community resources are available to them. Anyways, I thought I would create this post to ask you-parents of children with autism-some advice. I also plan to ask the very few parents who communicate with me regularly.
Anyways, I was thinking of offering an "Autism Series" for parents throughout the school year. Inviting all of the autism parents of students with autism throughout the district maybe once every 2-3 months & we would provide child care for their kids (I KNOW several of my paraprofessionals would volunteer to stay and help).
I was thinking that I could contact some local agencies & see if they would volunteer to come and speak to the parents about their (free or insurance covered) services that are available in the community.
Question 1: Do you think these service agencies would expect us to pay them for coming?
Some other nights, I thought we might show an autism documentary.
Question 2: Can you recommend any autism documentaries that are great?
I need them to appeal to parents of children of all ages. Either a heartwarming one or even one that offers some parent training. I am thinking of showing that HBO documentary "Autism: The Musical" for one choice.
The other road block I have is many of our parents are spanish speaking. Any documentaries that yoiu know of have spanish subtitles??
Thanks in advance & I look forward to your replies!!!
I am an autism specialist for a large urban school district. We currently service around 150 students on the spectrum from Pre-K to high school (nuts, huh?)

Anyways, as we are getting to the end of the school year, I am starting to plan for next year. We are very proud of our program & also of our wonderful staff & students. We have a handful of very involved parents, but the majority of our parents are just not involved in their child's education. Many are very poor, not educated, single parents, either on welfare or working 3 jobs, and there are also some who are just not plain interested. I've been thinking about how to get our parents more involved, provide them with more training & education on their children. I thought about doing a support group, but I'm very weary about offering advice on specific home problems, without seeing them myself, being able to assess them before I give them advice that I feel good about. I would LOVE to find a way, though, to help educate them about the disorder itself & also on what local community resources are available to them. Anyways, I thought I would create this post to ask you-parents of children with autism-some advice. I also plan to ask the very few parents who communicate with me regularly.
Anyways, I was thinking of offering an "Autism Series" for parents throughout the school year. Inviting all of the autism parents of students with autism throughout the district maybe once every 2-3 months & we would provide child care for their kids (I KNOW several of my paraprofessionals would volunteer to stay and help).
I was thinking that I could contact some local agencies & see if they would volunteer to come and speak to the parents about their (free or insurance covered) services that are available in the community.
Question 1: Do you think these service agencies would expect us to pay them for coming?
Some other nights, I thought we might show an autism documentary.
Question 2: Can you recommend any autism documentaries that are great?

I need them to appeal to parents of children of all ages. Either a heartwarming one or even one that offers some parent training. I am thinking of showing that HBO documentary "Autism: The Musical" for one choice.
The other road block I have is many of our parents are spanish speaking. Any documentaries that yoiu know of have spanish subtitles??

Thanks in advance & I look forward to your replies!!!
