After fourteen years, I've completed my last IEP qualification meeting and it feels kind of strange. We'll have brief tweaks, but I won't have to go through the process of providing data and advocating for him to receive an individualized education. That piece, that huge piece, is done.
He is seventeen and will soon be done with his sixth semester of college. He's been delaying graduating by leaving one requirement untaken, but intends to just finish next semester. In December he'll get his high school diploma and his associate's degree and then...
We've been chatting about jobs and four year colleges and choices open to him. He will be a legal adult when he graduates, but the asynchronous development is still a powerful challenge. I'd guess he's roughly five years from the maturity level to live on his own... and he currently has no interest (including no interest in college dorms).
So, a new challenge will soon present itself. How to help my son gain maturity when he's a legal adult, a college graduate, a brilliant and quirky person who doesn't have a clear path he wants to take. So far, our thoughts are a part-time job and part-time college classes in math because it's currently the subject he's most likely to turn into a career. But, he doesn't have the maturity/skill yet to drive a car and struggles so much with social skills... could he get a job, keep a job? If not, are those the best opportunities to suggest for learning?
I'm just pondering now. We've got a good six months before I get to figure out that gameplan of balancing support and letting reality be the excellent teacher it is. It's just odd to walk out of an IEP meeting knowing that the huge roll of coordinating his team is coming to an end... I will never be in another triannual going through the details of an Autism diagnosis point by point so he can qualify for services. He won't have a team. Honestly, I think he's ready to tackle more complex academics and advocate for himself independently... the rest of real-world independence, I feel a new era of trial and error is about to begin.
