special ed services for kids

Good day,
My partner and I teach at private schools; to my knowledge there is very little support for kids with any kinds of learning/processing differences. I cannot speak for the public school sector--you may have better luck there. Then again, our public schools have many of their own problems.
Successfully educating an autism-spectrum child on STT may prove to be very, very difficult.
Have you been on island? Have you talked to or visited any schools?

Thank you for your response. I have not been to the island as of yet. We are planning a trip to check things out in the next month or so. I have a call into one of the special ed supervisors but have not heard from them yet. (Not sure how long I should wait before I call them again). We have home schooled our son in the past so it is not out of the question but we would rather have him in a school setting if possible. He is extremely high functioning almost savant like but there are so many issues that a school setting presents that trouble him.

Go to " Autism Society U.S. Virgin Islands"

Please explore your options very carefully. A few years ago a family moved down, two teen girls and a younger brother with special needs. The dad was a professional brought down by a large employer. Just about the time the girls were finding their niche and beginning to LOVE island life, the family realized that services for the boy were woefully lacking. After 6 months the mom and the kids moved back to the states and the dad followed 6 months later. They sold their house at a loss and he took a demotion to get back to his family. The entire family lost out.

All that was to say, don't take for granted that the services you need will be here, even if someone says they are. Come for several weeks and do research before uprooting your family.

@Linda J that is such a sad story and exactly the situation I am trying to avoid. @Lizard thank you for the information I am going to check it out. Finally, are there homeschool organizations that are active there?

dear war eagle, the spec. ed services here in the territory in no way measure up to what you would receive in the states. there is an active autism society,"the actual name" has slipped my mind right now founded and headed by stephanie barnes,who is also the territory's adea director. i should be able to send you a pm tomorrow with the actual name of the group and her contact info. on the positive side, if your move is not bound to stt. and you would consider stx. there is a fabulous private,reasonably priced,newly accredited school called kingshill school.it caters to special needs students ,tries to maintain an enrollment of 30,with class sizes ranging fro 4/8.there currenty is one child with autism and about 3students diagnosed with aspergers attending.it provides an individualized and very caring environment. they have a website you might want to check out.ican also provide you with contact info . if interested. i was a special educator for 28 years on the mainland and spent my last 3/4 years working with children with aspergers of varying levels. some were mostly selfcontained but others completed the total college prep program with support and went on to college. please feel free to email me personally if i can be of anymore help. good luck!

dear lily1025 we would be buying a specific business for sale on stt so stx is not an option. any info you can send me would be great and if you do not mind me bugging you with quesiton I will email you soon I would love to talk to you. We really want to do this move but only if it can work for the entire family. Thanks so much.

I am curious as to what might be thought of as "pushy". I have not been able to reach any one in the special ed services who can give me info. Left 3 messages but no response. Will i get a response or do I just need to keep calling until I finally am able to talk to someone who has the information I need. Just wondering.

This isn't specific to special ed services, but in general, I've found that I have more luck if I just keep calling until someone answers. It seems like no one listens to messages, and if they do, they don't bother to call back.

And this is going to be more difficult from off-island. It would be better and easier if you could be here to stand in front of someone with your questions. Also, the answers would tend to be more accurate.

And this is going to be more difficult from off-island. It would be better and easier if you could be here to stand in front of someone with your questions. Also, the answers would tend to be more accurate.

You are so right about this! My husband and I were just discussing last night that we need to just go down there so we can see the schools and talk to the people we need to. I don't think we can make an educated decision from up here.