Second Thoughts...

So, I'm having second thoughts about Tom's school. We accepted his place at TCA, but, I'm beginning to wonder if it's the right school for him. I'm concerned at their lack of autism personnel, not that he needs constant support, but, if there is one thing we've learned over the past few weeks, it's that having that resource available is very helpful. Tom's issue with one of his classmates has shown that if we have autism specialist support available as needed, things are dealt with quickly. When there is a dollar amount associated with the availability of support, undoubtedly, he would not get the support as quickly or regularly.
I'm also concerned that if something happened at TCA as has been happening at preschool (not Tom's fault, the other typical kid is causing most of the issues), I have a horrible feeling that, being the one with the label, Tom would be the scapegoat.
After a weekend away skiing and lots of great advice from some new friends, I'm going to re-visit the decision.
Tomorrow I have a tour set up at the local IB elementary school that we can simply 'accept' the place at, if we wish, since it's the follow on school from his preschool, and tonight is the kinder info night for another local elementary school, so, I'm going to that one too.
Our main reason for preferring the charter school was the smaller class sizes, but, even smaller class sizes are less preferable to a school where if Tom does have any issues, support is available. At TCA, they said that we would have limited autism support for the kinder year, but it would 'go away' for the subsequent years, which, aside from not being completely in the spirit of IDEA, it's a little too presumptive. True, he might not need any support, but, he might also need a little autism support.
So, I think it's probably wise to look at other options over the next week to either confirm the TCA decision, or to choose another school....