Paul's in Arlington, but they are getting ready to move to the Quincy -,Braintree area.Next SepT. because in Arlington they have been using a old Catholic school that has been sold along with the church there. Paul had a pretty good local placement ages 3-6 but I knew he was going to age out of the program and the school system would be trying to move him to a general program with children with all types od disablilty and for alot of reasons it just was not going to be good for Paul. It was Sept. 2003 and he would have to move June 2004. I went online and pulled up a list of approved 766 schools in Ma. and looked at their profile narrowing the list to those schools that took Autistic kids in Paul's age range, offered 12 month day programs and were within a certain travel range from my home. Your child can be in a cab up to 1 hour more if they get a waiver. I then went to each school or program site and took a good look at the programs. Looking for their phlosphy. their student makeup. I also did a search for complaints,lawsuits, etc on each school. One school had a amazing number of court cases where staff had been found guilty of assult charges against students. I looked at schools that bragged a computer for every student and found programs that had machines attached to computers that rewarded students with treats if they got right answers. ( It gave me the creeps). I knew of the May program all along and as it turned out it would be the best choice. Now how to get the school system to pay $65,000 a year?. We called the May in Nov. 2003 and arranged ( behind our school systems back) to take a tour. it is your right! We toured and met with staff. We also filled out a application ( also without our school system knowing). We then arranged to have our son evaluated by the May ( also not showing our hand to our school system) to see if they would accept him. There was no fee for the application or evaluation. Once Paul had been accepted Feb. 2004 and we were waiting for a spot. We called our school system and asked for a meeting to discuss Paul's placement in the spring. When we went to the meeting we told school staff about our interest in the may and I feel they tried to bully us. They told us we had to apply to at least 3 schools(not true) they said we were not allowed to visit schools without their permission ( not true) They said they would not pay for a evaluation by the May ( True but the eval. was paid for by the May) When we asked what other schools they thought would be good for Paul? We were ready. They mention 3 or 4 programs and I had a folder on each one with pros and cons ready. They said how about XXX and i said they do not use ABA or how about YYY and I asked them if they knew that school since 1999 had been taken to court on 8 different assult charges against student 6 found guilt one staff member had a warrent out for his arrest but had fled the country. You have to do your homework! Once we settled on the May it did get tricky because the May contacted us a slot was open March 2004 but If Paul did not take quickly he would lose it and they could not promise him space in the spring. I won't bore you with details concerning digging my heels in to get Paul moved early . But he's at the May. Can you get to the Federation for Children conference March 12th in Boston? All the information is on their website. The Mays program for ages 3 to 6 is intergrated with the normally developing children of staff members Your child does not have to be severly affected to attend the May. Always put your name on list worse case you come to the top and have to go back to the bottom but at least your name is on a list. Is any of this information helpful to you?