<p>Wow. Post 10 outlines some fabulous supports. I hope the OP’s student is using them!</p>
<p>Well, I am new to the mechanics of CC Forum and the quote message in reply button doesn’t seem to work like other forums I’ve visited. It looks like I’ve seen quotes in other forums on CC. So I’ll see if I can figure that out.</p>
<p>This forum does not offer rich functionality. You’ve got to ‘hand-roll’ it. :)</p>
<p>The syntax is:
[<quote=“name of=”" poster"=“”>]The quote goes here.
but without the angle brackets. So the above, without the angle brackets, gives:
</quote="name></p>
<p>Similarly for [<b>]bolding[</b>]. Or a ‘u’ instead of ‘b’ for underlining. Or ‘i’ for italics. Some browsers (but not IE9, it seems) support the MS Word shortcut of highlighting the desired text & hitting <ctrl><b> / <ctrl> / <ctrl><i> , as appropriate.</i></ctrl></ctrl></b></ctrl></p><b><i>
<p>[<size=1>]Lastly, small text is achieved by using the size keyword..</size=1></p>
<p>Every once in a while, I like to let my inner teacher geek out.</p>
</i></b>
<p>or you can just do
[<quote>]quote[</quote>]
for this:
</p>
<p>and delete all the <>s.</p>
<p>Well, there are so many replies and I appreciate them all. There doesn’t seem to be a way to quote messages to reply to individual’s comments so I will just try to state what is going on. </p>
<p>The DSO rep at RIT did reply to my son’s email asking for accommodations today. (The accommodations he requested were those made in his neuropsych evaluation and were very specific.) So speed of reply today from DSO was very good and the reply was thorough. The DSO rep said that it was up to my son whether he wants to disclose the details of his disability to the individual instructors/professors. (So, there does not appear to be a legal requirement at least in New York that a student has to tell instructors their disability as someone suggested there might be). </p>
<p>The DSO office is supposed to circulate a Disability Service Agreement to the instructors once the accommodations are “approved”. So this approval is the next step. I guess that will be Monday when we find out what is involved with that. My worry is of course any delay in getting this set up for next semester.</p>
<p>We will of course avail ourselves to all suggestions (time management, help with writing, help for people on autistic spectrum [AS], etc…) made by the DSO. The big step and how DSO and RIT itself will earn my goodwill is whether and how quickly will be getting the accommodations in place.</p>
<p>One of the big things we want our son to learn is how to advocate for himself and as someone said: colleges are not like high school. The problem is for the person on the AS learning to advocate for themselves while the semester clock is running. There are no pauses during any course while the AS person figures out that they need help with a course and then when to ask for it help and then be able to implement the recommendations.</p>
<p>Last year’s weekly meetings with someone from DSO (I wasn’t there mind you) amounted to checking in with my son to see if he was getting things done. I was worried about these meetings because there did not seem to be enough structure and could amount to something like “How are things going?” “Fine.”</p>
<p>Good that they’re responsive. If you’re willing and your son & the school are amenable, can you assist with helping to get the process established?</p>
<p>BTW - the RIT process sounds identical to that described to us by the Services rep at UMass Amherst.</p>
<p>
]</p>
<p>What I mean by self-disclosure is that students have to inform each of their professors (without revealing a diagnosis) by submitting accommodation paperwork from the DSO at the beginning of the semester (or at whatever point the student wants to start receiving accommodations). The student has to ask for the accommodations from each professor individually and for each course, each semester. There is no legal requirement for a student to self-disclose the nature or diagnosis of the disability, but in order to receive accommodations, the student does have to present the paperwork to the professor. The student’s accommodations do not follow from class to class or from semester to semester.</p>
<p>I would actually recommend that your son not discuss the nature of the disability with his professors as it is neither here nor there. Only the list of recommended accommodations on the DSO paperwork is what the professor needs to see.</p>
<p>I suggest a transitional person, hired by you if necessary, to help during this time when you wish there could be a “pause” button. In other words, for the time between when you stop advocating because you are not there, and your son has learned to advocate for himself. That person can also provide support. A coach/tutor type of person, once a week, might work.</p>
<p>And what about the program described in post #10?</p>
<p>Again, some schools will not put a lot of specific academic accommodations in the letter to the professors, but leave it to be worked out between student and professor, or a dean type person suggests specific accommodations according to a specific situation. It does sound like RIT is willling, however, to put specific accommodations in the letter, so that’s helpful.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree it won’t happen or won’t happen very well if he doesn’t step up. His mother and I are on him. I agree it is important for his life.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Great idea.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A link to this web page was in the email from the DSO Rep today. I so hope it is as good as it sounds.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That would be great if there could be someone who could be his advocate in the dean’s office. I know he does not want us to be too involved. We don’t want to be a pest but we are getting nervous about how things went last year and that things did not go great this past semester.</p>
<p>What kind of release?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What I meant by this is I did not have any information to make me think that the people staffing the writing lab - probably very capable grad students - would have the training to work with someone on the autistic spectrum and who also has a writing disorder.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would love to sit in on one of these meetings. I don’t know how my son would feel about it. He wants to be independent. Maybe we could attend via Skype and that would be easier for him. Also he is 6-7 hour car ride away - his choice and a different story altogether.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree wholeheartedly about learning to self-advocate. We won’t be around forever to back him up. </p>
<p>However, the risks of academic performance are real risks if it means not graduating from college. Lots of people can advocate for themselves and can’t get a good job if they don’t have adequate training/degree of some sort.</p>
<p>There is a law called Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Once a student reaches 18 years of age or attends a postsecondary institution, he or she becomes an “eligible student,” and all rights formerly given to parents under FERPA transfer to the student. The eligible student has the right to have access to his or her education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, the right to have control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the records (except in certain circumstances specified in the FERPA regulations, some of which are discussed below), and the right to file a complaint with the Department.</p>
<p>In other words, you only get to see his grades if he lets you. Now most parents say “you want me to pay next semester, show me the grades”. He can either do that or sign a waiver sayign you can access his records.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.rit.edu/fa/legalaffairs/sites/rit.edu.fa.legalaffairs/files/docs/ferpaconsentform.pdf[/url]”>http://www.rit.edu/fa/legalaffairs/sites/rit.edu.fa.legalaffairs/files/docs/ferpaconsentform.pdf</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is how I look at college for S. Besides education/degree, it is also a chance for him to get an inkling of the difficulties of functioning in life and where failure is not as rough as it could be later in life. If it weren’t for the darn degree thing…</p>
<p>The Spectrum program looks like it will provide most everything that has been suggested, though your son is not a first-year and missed the introductory year programs. Perhaps he can still benefit from the introductory program, and the ongoing program for after freshman year looks great too.</p>
<p>Post #10’s description of Spectrum includes mention of “signed consent” to enable communication among various helpful people, including, if the student agrees, parents. I believe this is the FERPA release. This is the release I was referring to. Noone at the college or, for that matter, in health services, can communicate with a parent without a release, if a student is over 18.</p>
<p>I have a daughter with serious health conditions. She did not sign a release and one time, when she was in the hospital, I could not find her. Health services was not allowed to tell me where she was!</p>
<p>I googled “autism college coach” and got a bunch of sites. Here is one: [Autism</a>, Asperger’s & ADHD Support for College Students | AHEADD](<a href=“aheadd.org”>http://www.aheadd.org/) Generally, for a kid who values independence but has some special needs, I think a transitional person provides a way station between dependence on parents and total self-advocacy. The Spectrum program may provide this but if it becomes clear that a person outside the college is also needed, at least for a little while, there are coaches out there.</p>
<p>I really don’t think that college years are the best time to learn self-sufficiency. I agree with this Dad that getting a college degree is a priority for longer term self-reliance, and if the special need requires support for those 4 years, then it should be given, in whatever way is palatable to the student. That said, a natural evolution toward independence will occur for a kid like this, who clearly wants it.</p>
<p>I have to talk with my daughter explicitly about the fact that in order to achieve long term independence, there are times when some residual, short-term dependence is needed. In other words, having a college degree may be an important factor in long-term independence. Therefore, if taking care of med RX’s, appointment referrals, and transportation to appointments, interferes with my daughter’s focus on academics, then I think (and have been told by MD’s) it is reasonable for me to take care of those things and my child needs to understand that my involvement in minutiae does not impede independence but fosters it. As it happens, by the end of 4+ years, she is settled enough in her life and routine, for her to have taken on all these tasks, but in a natural way, not because I dropped her off a cliff of “self-advocacy.” I have never attended a meeting at DOS or an appointment with an MD while she has been at college, but I do contact a dean when she is too ill to do it herself. Every case is different. An aware parent like AspTypDad can gauge what he needs to do, and the son will provide limits anyway.</p>
<p>To sum up (I can be wordy): this son has a drive for independence and may actually have to accept some level of help, that he doesn’t necessarily want. The best argument to make, to him, is, as I said, to keep his eye on the long-term and realize that help in the short-term may be crucial. And that help does not have to be a parent, but can be a transitional person, in the Spectrum Program and/or a person hired privately by the parents. By the end of college, he will most likely be more ready than you think as things evolve naturally.</p>
<p>Try the Edge Foundation (ADHD coaching). I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have someone that couldn’t coach an Aspy student. You would hire someone in the school’s metropolitan area.</p>
<p><a href=“https://edgefoundation.org/parents/how-a-coach-helps/[/url]”>https://edgefoundation.org/parents/how-a-coach-helps/</a></p>
<p>Despite the fact that we all want out children to be independent at college, there are situations where the parent needs to step in. I would call the Office of Disability Services, ask them to review his complete report and make an appointment for you and your S to meet with them when school resumes (maybe they will be available when you bring your S back after break). Go over his needs and design a plan that might work. </p>
<p>In my S’s four years at college, I had to step in once and I have no regrets about doing so. College is a huge investment of time and money for both parent and student. On a rare occasion a school is not appropriately responsive to a student request. For better or worse, the schools are usually responsive to the parent who is paying the bills!</p>
<p>[Program</a> Info | Spectrum Support Program | RIT](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/studentaffairs/ssp/info.php]Program”>http://www.rit.edu/studentaffairs/ssp/info.php)</p>
<p>I don’t understand why all of this wasn’t sorted out before he started his first day of freshman year. Was he enrolled in this program from the onset? If not, why not?</p>