Entry One...my classroom and my goals

I am very excited about the classroom that I am in. It is a full day Kindergarten, but I have two separate classes, a Monday/Wednesday and a Tuesday/Thursday. The classes alternate Friday's which works very well for catching up classes if a day is missed or for working on something extra special over a few weeks.

The community is a small rural community about an hour south of the city. The children have exposure to cities, but are far enough away that they are far more used to the slower, quieter, rural life.

In our classes, we have approx. 19 children. The M/W class gained yet another child just this past week which sent us all for an unexpected loop as this student brings with him several legal battles and interesting home situations. As for the rest of the class, the students are at varying capabilities in their reading and writing, however, I would say most are "normal".

In our M/W class we do have three Mild/Moderate for speech, and one PUF student, and in our T/TH class we also have a PUF funded child, who has a severe expressive language delay and will be joining us every day after christmas break as he needs to grow in a few more directions before he will be ready for grade 1.

AS far as special needs in the school, I am very impressed with the way that our school has moved towards inclusion in the recent years. I have heard rumor that no less that five years ago, there was still a "special education room" where every child with a special need was taught from every grade. However, a new principal stepped in recently and changed everything around to full inclusion. I am most encouraged by this step, but am very much surprised by the flack she receives from other teachers and parents to this day.

There is one student in particular who has spent all of his years at this school and is currently in grade 4. This student has been diagnosed wtih a very severe autism, and honestly, I am truly wondering how he is still allowed in a public school system. I have never seen a student stab a teacher, bite them, swear at the top of their lungs to anyone who is listening, and though I have not seen the numbers, I would like to argue that having this student in a normal classroom is hindering the learning of the rest of this classmates as well. However, what does one do? He is only government funded for 50% EA time, and his parents are adimate that he remain in the public system...even after he has been through 8 EA's (and yes, they all quit). I don't know what I can do to help. I know this student is not receiving the type of care that he needs, perhaps a snoozean (sp?) room, or a weighted vert, a squeeze box or sqing, but our school does not get the funding to beable to bring in all of those things for one student, and so, he will continue to not recieve proper care, and is sending a very wrong message to other students. Teachers are fed up, but feel they have no options.

I am not sure what to do, but I will try to find something out.