A Request For Information
I apologize for my lack of recent posts. In the last few days, I have been busy trying to understand the IRS depreciation recapture rules. That effort was the result of a couple of 2003 real estate transactions as well as my silly decision to prepare our 2003 tax return myself.
Before that, our kids were on spring break and we took the opportunity to visit the Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. We are considering moving to that area relatively soon and spent the week looking at houses and schools and visiting old friends.
That brings me to my request for information. Our decision about where to locate in that area is dependent, in part, on the quality of the schools. If any of you are familiar with the school systems in Durham, Orange County, or Chapel Hill-Carboro, would you please relate your experiences either by comment or email?
In particular, I am interested in middle school and high school programs for gifted students and elementary and middle school special ed programs for autistics.
I would greatly appreciate any help any of you could provide.
Regular posting will recommence soon.
Comments
I have friends (musicians) who live in Raleigh, one of my college roommates & her husband. While they don't officially have autistic children (one seems very Aspie to me), they have been through the special ed mill in the public schools, I think they are relatively happy. Let me ask her what she knows.
I know that Mel Levine (A Mind at a Time) has his main clinic there - we are going to the New York City one next month - and many of the schools are trained in his methods. They work great for the non-traditional learner.
Posted by: Moi ;) | April 16, 2004 07:19 PM
My grandson was in the Chapel Hill school system last year and my daughter was very pleased with it. He isn't autistic but does have moderate attention deficit problems, and she felt that they had both trained and patient teachers, and formal structures in place to deal with special needs students. Chapel Hill is just a great place to live--completely free bus transportation, terrific people, and a unique system for encouraging local business. The city prints its own scrip, which local employees can accept in lieu of part of their pay and which local businesses honor with a discount on prices. I did hear, however, that the school system has discontinued its honors programs for gifted students, because it supposedly discriminated against lower-achieving students.
Posted by: Liz | April 17, 2004 07:25 AM
I live in Cary, NC, and my daughter goes to one of the magnet middle schools in downtown Raleigh; this is part of the Wake County Public School System. I find their programs for gifted children to be top class, and am very satisfied. However, I was not very satisfied with the AG program in a non-magnet middle school that my daugher attended previosuly.
I am not too familiar with the special education programs in the Wake county public school system, but the Mariposa School in Cary specializes in autistic children. Might be something worth checking into.
Posted by: Clueless | April 17, 2004 01:19 PM