I asked you to share your tips on preparing the school for your child with autism, and reader Momonamission had some great suggestions that start the year strong and continue in the months that follow:

"Now that there is universal autism awareness, some teacher awareness has increased as well. Each year, during the first 2 weeks of school (not before because a week or so gives you a chance to get an idea of how each teacher operates) we set up a meeting with all the teachers, aides, and support personnel to review how each one plans to implement the items in my son's IEP by subject, since he has subjects that need more attention than others. All during the year, I collect adapted assignments and examples of how special accommodations were made, what was successful and not, and then give the new teachers a copy of these. This has proven to be very successful because we are all aware of expectaions/outcomes. We exchange emails and phone numbers and I USE them!! By the time parent conference rolls around, the rapport is there to plan for future events instead of trouble shoot present problems. Your preparedness and persistance are key to advocate for your child's needs in school."

Do you have some good strategies for preparing the school for a child with autism or other special needs? Share them on the Readers Respond pages.

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A post on the blog Disability Scoop a few weeks back touched on something I've been wondering about lately: When should young people with special needs stop seeing the pediatrician and move up to a "regular" doctor? My two kids are seventeen and twenty now; the seventeen-year-old says he wants a doctor for grown-ups, while the twenty-year-old is comfortable with the familiar pediatric routine. According to Disability Scoop, she's not alone -- many patients with developmental disabilities are sticking with their pediatrician throughout their lifetime. Some doctors are actually specializing in that sort of ongoing relationship, while others are struggling to accommodate older patients with, say, waiting rooms with normal-size chairs and no toys.

I'm generally happy with our pediatrician, and since she specializes in teen issues, I haven't felt in a big hurry to move on. More and more though, as the kids in the waiting room get younger and younger and our visits are punctuated by the sounds of screaming babies in the next room, I'm thinking that moving on up to the doctor my husband and I see might be a nice rite of passage for these young adults of mine. Maybe next year.

If your child has made the transition up from pediatrician, when did that happen? Share in the comments. And if you love your pediatrician or feel totally the opposite, share your pediatrician stories on the Readers Respond page.

_{Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images}

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A friend recently found herself in that position all parents of special-education students who take the bus dread: The pick-up schedule didn't come when it was supposed to, she finally got someone on the phone, and there was no record of her child needing the service. Without comment or discussion, it had somehow slipped out the IEP, and nobody noticed until now.

It's easy to forget bus service when you're planning an IEP, especially when you're worried about educational issues and debating placement and accommodations and modifications. The bus arriving every morning is something we expect to just happen, like water coming out of the faucets or the lights turning on. But considering that the person most inconvenienced by the lack of bus service is you, the parent, it's a good idea to make remembering to get it into the IEP your job as a member of the team. In fact, it's good practice to go through your child's IEP before a meeting, highlight every easily forgotten but vitally important service, and make it a point to bring each one up in the meeting. Then confirm before you sign the IEP that each one is in fact in print.

If you need a reminder to keep track of those things that carry over year to year, print out my quick tip on the subject and clip it to the page of the calendar when your IEP meeting usually occurs. Tie a ribbon around your finger if you have to. As we learn with our children, stopping a problem before it starts is infinitely preferable to dealing with it once it's rolling.

_{Photo by Brendan Smialowsky/Getty Images}

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