but now he doesnt unless someone is really not understanding what he is wanting. Biting is their way of communicating, nothing more nothing less. So something was happening that was not making him happy and they let it escalate...
My son is totally non verbal. He can sign milk, candy, more, please and thank you. Over the holidays i have begin teaching him more signs: movie, blanket, cereal, eat, and pop. We had been using PECS already and only recently decided to try more signs. He can already do movie and pop with some regularity. He uses quite a few pecs, too.
The principal needs to be the one that plans for situations like this, its not your fault. They are responsible for him while he is in school. The behavior plan is also suppose to help the assistant learn to keep this type situation from happening by knowing what to do before it escalates...
If they do not have the knowledge (and its really seeming to me that is the case) to provide appropriate education they are required to bring in a consultant that can plan his educational needs and train those that are with him on a day to day basis.
Do you know if they have any training in PECS, ABA (applied behavioral analysis) ect? Do they provide a picture schedule? I would realllllly recommend providing him ABA as part of his day. My son has made much progress with ABA. His day is spent half with his peers and half in a one to one situtation doing ABA.
I would begin with writing a letter stating that you think with the incident prior to break that you would like to have an IEP meeting to discuss the educational program for your child and the possibility that the school should provide an autism consultant to design your childs educational program, provide training for the assistants and yourself (if you want training they have to provide you with ANY training they provide to others that is particulary for your child). When you write the letter you dont want to appear threatening, not at this point anyway
...you can go to www.wrightslaw.com to get information on writing letters to schools.
All you can do is see how they respond to this and go from there. If they dont act like they should do anything or they feel they are doing what is appropriate, you may need to contact an attorney. Special education attorneys quite often take cases on a contingency basis because if they prevail the district is responsible for their fees (and they arent likely to take the case if they dont feel they can prevail).
But it may not come to that, you may go to the meeting and they too might realize they dont have enough training and might agree to a consultant or training without a fight. Would be a miracle, but hey miracles can happen !
