Fighting for the Right Supports: Colene & Sterling’s Story
As early as kindergarten, Colene Bensink’s son, Sterling, needed extra support to stay on track in school—but that support wasn’t always there.
Struggling with behaviors like eloping, ruining papers, or trying to break things in the classroom, Sterling—who has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and other disabilities—was often only permitted to attend one to two hours of his fulltime kindergarten class per day, while peers were attending for seven hours.
Sterling was able to make improvements with the support of an in-classroom Board Certified Behavior Analyst. But when that support was dramatically reduced by the school, Colene saw her son’s struggles intensify. Tensions rose between the family and school administrators as discussions got underway to determine the level of support that Sterling would receive in first grade.
Colene, Sterling, their family members, and Sally at The Arc’s Summer Picnic.
“His schools were calling child welfare all because he has an autism diagnosis. (I’d ask), ‘Okay, how do we support him?’ And there just wasn’t the support we needed,” Colene described.
At school staff’s insistence, for first grade, Colene transferred Sterling to a school with an ASD center-based program—but it was just months into the school year that Sterling was placed on a shortened schedule there, as well. With Sterling owed hundreds, and then thousands, of hours of compensatory services, Colene reached out to the advocacy team at The Arc-Jefferson, Clear Creek & Gilpin Counties. At the time, there was still a long journey of meetings, research, and advocating ahead of her; but with The Arc’s support, Colene was prepared to fight for the programming and accommodations that Sterling needed to thrive in school.
Exploring the options
Finding the right support for Sterling began with reframing the discussions that were taking place during meetings with school staff, Colene recalled.
“There was so much negativity from the schools regarding Sterling, and he's a little boy. He's trying to figure out stuff,” said Colene. But a shift began when Arc advocate Dr. Sally Carruthers started attending meetings alongside Colene. “She would just always come in and go, ‘This is a little boy. He's a sweet little boy—he likes Legos, he likes Spider-Man, he likes video games.’ She just always (focused) on his positives. That was the starting point of realizing how to help him.”
Together, Colene and Sally continued to meet with district staff to outline the ongoing issues and work toward a solution. And in the process, Colene found herself learning about the intricacies of special education. Terminology used by school staff began to make more sense; details in her son’s IEP became more comprehensible. Through The Arc, the mom also learned about other options available to Sterling that she hadn’t previously been aware of, and she worked with the district to have Sterling transfer to a specialized, out-of-district school called Spectra Centers, which serves students with ASD.
Colene, Sterling, and Sally following Sterling’s performance in his school’s winter musical.
Right away, Colene could see that the change had been the right decision.
“My son was doing well. He still had his moments; I would come get him when I had to. He would go half-day when he needed to. But they were working with us totally differently,” she said. “I felt like I was part of the team versus being told what to do.”
While the out-of-district placement was a wonderful stepping stone for Sterling, the north star was always for him to return to an in-district public school in which he could learn alongside his neurotypical peers. And in his fourth-grade year, staff members from Spectra believed that Sterling was ready to begin preparing for this transition. Nervous about the possibility, Colene reached out to Sally at The Arc once again to talk about the decision, one step at a time—looking over data showing Sterling’s progress one day, deciding which school could be a good fit the next.
“I would come out of those meetings (with Sally) going, ‘I see what the school sees,’” Colene recalled. And when it came time to make this big decision, the family agreed with what school staff had proposed: For fifth grade, Sterling transferred to an in-district school with an ASD center-based program and, for sixth grade, enrolled in the mainstream middle school that he attends today.
‘An amazing transformation’
There was a time when Colene couldn’t imagine simply dropping her son off at school, watching him walk into the building alongside his peers, and returning to pick him up after a full day of learning. But now, that is exactly what schooldays bring; Sterling’s new school has proven to be a great fit. The sixth-grader is thriving, spending the majority of his day in the general education classroom and making friends through a range of afterschool activities, including basketball, choir concerts, and the winter musical.
“It’s been an amazing transformation for Sterling. We went from the most extreme behaviors to—boom!—mainstream. It’s just been night and day,” Colene said. “Having The Arc and Sally help us find the right environment for Sterling to then grow—it's been amazing.”
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