I am beginning to think that when it comes to secondary education , one size fits all . Which is not really my understanding of inclusion .
I was recently sent a text from my son's school saying ' your son is absent from school please confirm by text that he is not attending school today '.
Well my son left the house at the normal time to catch the bus to go to school . Naturally , if I am told, over an hour after he is due to be at school . That he is absent , I am going to be a little worried , given he is high functioning autistic.
When I receive texts while at work I can,t always read them immediately . The time that had elapsed since I had last seen my son that morning and reading the text was close to two hours .
I stopped what I was doing and called the school ,
I was told that he had probably arrived late and had not followed procedure ; ( signed a form at the school office , reporting his lateness ). The woman I spoke too , told me she would call me back as soon as she had located him .
I am usually calm in these situations , and can think rationally , but when my son leaves for school , that task becomes his life's work . Few other thoughts enter his head on the journey , he has a preferred seat on the bus , which is near to the bell on the bus so there will be no chance of him missing his stop . Obviously there are other pupils on the bus , but he does not rely on any one of them stopping the bus at the right stop.
I was called back within about 10 minutes and told that yes my son was at school he had arrived at 8.40 . School starts at 8.32 , he had missed registration and as there was a school assembly that day he he attended that and forgot to sign the lateness form . All was well again , a slow exhale .
I asked the woman at admin if it was possible that they could change the wording of the text , to late and not absent in these situations, and explained about my son's autism and how , when I receive these texts it sends a shiver through me .
She replied that these texts were automatically sent with out any concern given to the individual child but she would pass on my comments .
One size fits all ...............................................
