placement IEP

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My 6 year old (pdd-nos) is mainstreamed with aide /speech/resource.
On 1st annual & 2nd IEP they insisted he needs to go to sdc. (I refused to sign)
I had the 3rd IEP meet today and they offered me to continue him in mainstream wth aide / speech/ resource and also 1 hour of sdc class.

According to them they want us to see how he does wth this setting. They say that he s unable to cope wth the pace of the class & someday will land in sdc & will develope behavioral issues so why not now as it ll be early intervention.seems they have tried " everything".(he's struggling in Math, but scored 2nd highest in reading but when it comes to writing has trouble). His evaluation by school does not mention "learning disability" so when i questioned them they said they donno and that criteria is just a label ,their offer is based on his needs.

Usually student in sdc can go to mainstream for some part of the day but the vice versa is not practiced but ours is special case where they r doing the reverse.

I donno if this offer is suitable since I have a feeling they r slowly pushing him to sdc( I asked if it works then what ? they said we will get him more hours of sdc, ofcourse i can refuse to agree with the more hours of sdc...)

What's ur view on this offer ????
it's tempting as he will get one on one ( they have 1 kid& him) for one hour ( usually last one hour of the day)& also will be mainstreamed with aide but then I am having 2nd thoughts ( if its a plan to push him slowly to sdc). Nowadays due to budget cuts the school's interest is more to save money rather than help the students so...

Please advice

My personal opinion is that he should be in the environment where he does best. Of course, I know absolutely nothing about your son, so my opinions reflect generalities rather than your specific case. I think mainstreaming kids with autism is appropriate when they are able to function in the environment with the necessary supports and accommodations, but I do not think all kids with autism should be mainstreamed. The mainstream environment may be just too overwhelming for some and it may impair their ability to do their best.

Personally, I would look at it as objectively as I possibly could and choose the environment that my kid experienced the most success in, whether it matched my desires or not. By all means, if he does equally well, but not better in sdc, then fight like crazy to keep him out of there. But if he does better, I think the prudent thing to do would be to seriously evaluate why he should NOT be in an environment that appears to best suit his needs.

Good luck.

Is he in kindergarten or 1st grade right now? Is he having behavioral issues the last hour of school?