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Asperger Syndrome Education - College/Post Grad
Not all teens are ready for a residential college experience. To decide, use the evidence of how the teen did at sleep away camp or similar samplings of independence, and look carefully at executive function skills. As an alternative, community colleges offer a lot of flexibility: easy admission, low cost, remedial courses if necessary, the option of a light course load, and the security of living at home. Some disability offices are more successful than others at providing effective, individualized support. However, if the teen is living at home, you may be able more easily to sense trouble, step in with help, or secure supports your young adult needs to succeed.
If your teen seems like a good candidate for college, take him or her to visit colleges during the spring vacation weeks of the junior year of high school, or during the summers before junior and senior year. This is easy to do in Massachusetts! Visits reveal a lot about what environment the teen will prefer. Purchase a large college guide to browse (e.g. Fiske). Also look at Colleges that Change Lives by Loren Pope: Clark University, Hampshire College, and Marlboro are New England colleges in this book.
The college section of the AANE teen and adult packets includes phone numbers of parents you can call to ask about specific colleges their children attended.
Because your college student is no longer a minor, colleges generally will not communicate openly with parents, nor disclose the student’s disability without the student’s permission. Some colleges will allow the student to sign a blanket waiver to release information to parents, but many will only allow limited waivers or none. The burden on the student to disclose, to ask for help, and to let parents know about problems—things that are hard for our kids.