I have a newly diagnosed level one 7th grader who also struggles with anxiety and adhd. He is mainstreamed in public school with minimal iep goals and some accommodations. We are currently having issues with school attendance, which started with being ill and has now gotten him deep into defense mode. The school is being pushy with attendance to both us and him. The first 1/2 of his school day is triggering for him for whatever reason. Once he is triggered he is so dysregulated that any sort of coping skills go out the window and he becomes extremely rigid, just wanting to go home. He is also in the midst of a medicine change for the anxiety. School doesn’t want me to allow him to go home anymore, but we did that once a couple of weeks ago and it caused a 4 day recovery time. They have no other options for us and do not seem to see the value in scaffolding for success (ie increase the number of periods he attends starting with the end of the day) We are extremely close to pulling him out to home/coschool. Has anyone experienced anything like this themselves or with their children? I understand the value in sitting in discomfort, but believe it should be in short timeframes not a period of 6 hrs. He is a master masker so I think the school sees this as a defiance/refusal/anxiety situation purely instead of considering the impact that autism may play. I’m overall frustrated

Posted by bekster225 at 2023-10-20 13:45:20 UTC