My son Justice, then a junior at the local high school, was struggling. I’ve written in the past about Justice’s journey as a person with autism and how challenging the traditional education path can be for kids at level one on the spectrum (level one is designated as “needing support,” levels two and three graduate in the amount of support needed).
“Mom, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep going to this school. I’m tired of asking for permission to go to the bathroom, and I’m not like the other kids. I’m older and different.” Justice is a very sincere person 80 percent of the time, so when he said he had reached the end of his journey at traditional high school, we took it seriously.
A week later, I was having a conversation with a neighbor, who shared that their daughter had recently graduated from a local technical college with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree. I thought this was the Running Start program, which I was familiar with. The neighbor explained that this was indeed not Running Start, we would have to unenroll Justice entirely from the school district and get approval to enroll him at the local technical college that ran a “Technical High School” program…