Summer's Here!

These are the days kids live for! HOT weather, many friends, and a slip'n'slide in the backyard with many popicles to go around. Now this is what childhood is all about.

The Reality Vs The Fantasy

We've been considering moving to Wisconsin for years now because everyone here in IL tell us the services for autism there are out of this world. It hasn't been until recently that we've really looked hard into it due to feeling very much stuck here. Anyhow, we recently joined a support group in S.E. WI and we're beginning to feel the reality of services offered that Jovan could benefit from differ from what we fantasized about. The biggest whoop about WI is their autism waiver, which provides intensive therapy...however, we found out that if your child isn't on the waiting list by age 8, they're no longer qualified for this service. We also learned that WI discourages self contained classrooms (which Jovan is in now in IL), and most disabled students are in regular/typical classes with support people. Maybe this will work for Jovan, we've never tried that route yet, however my gut feeling is he's needs more than that. There's only 6 self-contained classrooms in the entire Kenosha district (where we'd probably end up moving), and most are geared for developmentally delayed students, not autism. So now we feel, at this time, that WI may even be more limited in choices than IL! 

However, we're only at the tip of the iceberg and we may be making more of an issue of this than need be. We know a few families that live in Kenosha and they seem pretty satisfied with their services...so too early I guess to make an informed opinion yet.