To native Austinites, people like my family are invasive species. Over the last 25 years together, my spouse and I have migrated from the midwest to the mid-Atlantic back to the midwest to the west coast and found ourselves home in Austin in fall 2015.
It isn't much of a surprise that there are parts of Austin, had they been our first experiences, we would have not found the community we have. After spending a little over two years in the concrete suburbs of San Jose and five other years inside the beltway in the D.C. area, we knew we needed a smaller city with quick access to land where you can drive your car and sit and see no people for miles.
Had we toured the development of North Austin first, I'm not sure we would have chosen to live here. But we didn't. We toured the east side and the south side and Oak Hill, and we loved it.
One of the the drawbacks of moving in the middle of a school year and not knowing where you will find housing, however, is making decisions about where your child will go to school. In this venue, we were extremely lucky to find a private school where our only child could attend, so he wouldn't have to experience three schools in one school year. In Austin, like in most locations, your public school choice is determined by where you live -- mostly.
We wanted X-man to start school within a week of the move. Our kiddo is a bit out of the mold. He is 2E. He is cognitively gifted with learning disabilities. In this case, he has been diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety and has had an IEP identify him as significantly gifted with nonverbal learning disabilities specifically regarding writing (dysgraphia). He also has delays in processing, emotional intelligence and regulation, fine motor skills related to endurance and executive functioning. He is both significantly sensory defensive and sensory seeking depending on the day -- and he's a very emotionally sensitive kid. So choosing a school where he doesn't cry on the way there and on the way home every day from the emotional tragedies and unfairness or over sensory stimulation or boredom is not as easy for us as it might be for parents of neurotypical kids.
It is especially difficult in a state that was was investigated and found to be limiting special education accessibility to only 8.5% of children in most every district. If you'd like news articles backing up that sentence there are several. The one that came out today talks about how restrictions were so intense that even blind kids can't get assistance.
Emails to a couple principals in schools in areas we were looking for housing in weren't hitting the level of knowledge of special needs I was looking for, and any that did, were quick to confirm that they would evaluate the deficits, but could offer nothing for his strengths. In California, this was also the case -- and it put a large damper on my child's enjoyment of learning and made him feel like every day was only about what was wrong with him.
So, we enrolled X-man in a small private school with lots of kids like him. Only 12 or less children to a class. And it's working out. But that school ends in eighth grade, so I'm looking forward to high school.
I'm going to come out right here and admit that I am a big supporter of public schools and of teachers. It was hard for me to rearrange my own thinking about educational goals and my own experience to send my son to a school that has turned out to be better for him rather than society at large. I was raised by a teacher who sent me to public school, even though she taught at a private one, and there are larger societal issues at play in most educational situations that I will likely call out that other people won't want to talk about or hear about but that I find important.
Mostly, what I hope this blog does is show how I navigated the educational options in Austin, and maybe it can serve as a resource for other parents wondering how best to investigate their options for schools in Austin.
No one educational choice is right for all students. I know that, and I hope you do, too.
I am excited to see what you uncover in Austin. We moved our son from our neighborhood school to a different community that had programs more suited for him as an individual. I agonized over the decision because I am also a huge proponent of public schools. And while our son attends a public school, it is in a very wealthy community and functions more like a private school. So I get that part of it. But what I learned through the process is that... kids need vastly different things. If a child does not fit within the standard mold, she will struggle functioning well in an environment set to support that standard mold. It makes sense. So I have one son who could thrive in nearly any schooling environment and another son that needs something very specifically tailored to himself to be successful. And that is cool. Well, it is cool if you have the resources to support that. But that is another topic, perhaps for another time.
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