My 16 year old PDD-NOS son is now at a residential boarding school called Deveraux Glenholme. While it is not specifically a school for students on the spectrum it has been a godsend. It is very ABA oriented and very structured. The Deveraux foundation runs several others schools around the country. Its worth looking into. If Deveraux can't help you they can certainly point you to several other resources. Best of luck to you.

My son Thomas (now 30 years old) was in a group home for a year and then in a foster home for about 5 years. Although we were hesitant to have him away from home, it did help him a great deal. It was recommended by the Westside Regional Center in our area when he was 9 years old. The main reasons were we (my husband and I) were burned out. After several years of bad behavior in school (he was sent home almost daily usually due to fighting and hitting a classmate) Special Ed didn't help the social aspect of his High Functioning Autism. Regular Special Education programs are mainly for academic (possibly slow-learners due to difficulties in reading)) and had no resources for autism. The fact that they were very structured environments really helped. He was in a different school district. They did have a special worker take him to the mall or out to walk among other people a couple times each week. He was encouraged to work on his eye-contact, feeling aggressive or frustrated and how to deal with it.We were able to pick him every single weekend and take him to church, including during summer school. It was a long arduous process. But the folks at church never even realized he was out of the house for 6 years. When he was he was 15 years old, he came home and continued at our regular high school in 10th grade in Special Education. Good Luck and God Bless.

My son has struggled with this as well. We just found out last year that he has aspergers but he is in denial as he was misdiagnosed before and put on medication. My son was also in a mental health facility but also had a drug problem he was struggling with but they only give them a bed not help them understand the disorder. My son basically slept the whole time he was there.

My child is 17 and we are looking for a group home when he turns 18 for higher functioning kiddos and we have been referred to mental health so many times and they say he has AUTISM and doesn't belong here. He qualifies for group home care because of his sleep disorders where he can fall asleep standing up and stay there until you wake him, as well as for his ASD needs of functioning but he can speak and read and talk and play, but there is no way he will want to be in a facility that only has kids who can't feed or bathe themselves. I believe we are going to have a hard time finding placement and like all "help and providers" that deal with autism, we need more who "get it" and who provide the right kind of care for the Autistic kind of needs. I would love to see some of the answers others may have for you and I certainly can relate to you in ways too so would speak to you more if you would like.

see my reply to drewsparents :-)