My 11 yr old just started public middle school. We've have a wonderful transition and things are going great for him. He is very high functioning and wants so much to be like all the other kids. I'd love to hear about other people's experiances with inclusion in public school.

Unfortunately for us, our son Jason did not transition successfully into middle school after leaving elementary school. He was so use to the structure of elementary school. The less structured middle school environment looked like madness to him. He kept bolting off school grounds to the point that the school decided he did not belong there. The school district did not know what to do with him, so he was schooled at home by a behavioral specialist working for the district. This was only a temporary solution since we did not want to keep Jason isolate from his peers.
Very fortunately for us, the behavioral specialist, along with the special education director were able to create a program for disabled children (mainly autism) who are not suitable for regular school settings. There are only a few kids with a large staff/student ratio. Our son has settled down quite a bit. But if he has a bad day we know it's nothing the staff can't handle.
It is exciting to know that some of the kids with autism can make the transition to another school without facing the problems that we did.