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Posted By A Son-Rise Message Board Participant on December 16, 1999 at 02:08:45:
Have you finished your paper yet? I have a guess that this thread will go longer than the time after your paper is due. Thanks for stirring up some attention! I'll try to answer your questions.
: Where does all the money that the parents spend for the different programs go to?
You can call the Option Institute to get their fund raising materials. In them you will see the amounts of money spent on the categories of salaries, benefits, maintaing the facility, supplies, etc. A significant area of expenditure is scholarships, and a significant area of income is fund raising. You can also request their federal tax form, since they are a nonprofit organization.
: How many people go to the Stert-Up and Max. Impact courses at a time?
When I went there were about 50 people in each class, which I think is their maximum. When my wife went there were about thirty. I met several who were there on a scholarship.
: Just a thought question: WHat do you all think about this?
As I said, some of the attendees are there on a scholarship, so I don't think you can determine how much money is coming in by simply multiplying the number of attendees by the course fee. For a purely financial comparison, I also attend seminars for my profession, and the average fee for an eight hour course, which does not include lunch or a place to stay in the evening is $275. There are frequently 200 to 300 people in the audience. These seminars are put on by our state society, which is a nonprofit, and are usually at a hotel which is not nearly as nice to be at as the Option Institute. So I view the cost of six nights lodging, all three meals and the course to be a bargain in relation.
: To those of you who are interested, Ihave decided to narrow down my term-paper and see what the motives of the Son-Rise program are. How do you feel?
That is wonderful, because it shows you are thinking about how all of this works. To put the cost of Son Rise into perspective, I have met a couple who do another form of home therapy with their autistic children called applied behavioral analysis. They were spending $8,500 per month, and took out a second mortgage on their house. They were involved in a lengthy legal battle with their school district to get the program paid for, and were mounting huge legal bill, too. In the meantime, they were miserable with this whole process, and were not the ones working with their child!
Son Rise taught me, in one tremendous week called the Start Up, how to work with my child and how to get and train volunteers to work with my child. My wife and I were more effective in the six months with him following that Start Up than all of the trained professionals were with him in the last three years! And I loved the whole process, myself my son and my family more than ever before!!
To those who have not attended a Start Up, I can only say that it was worth the cost many times over. Those who did attend know what I am talking about. To come to the realization that your child's issues are not a curse, but a blessing is so liberating. To be given hope once again, to realize that you can want everything for your child, and the ability to be present are learnings beyond what I can express in words. The transformation that occurred that week for me and my appreciation for my son puts to rest any question in my mind about the validity of what the Son Rise Program is about.
If any other parents with a "miracle cure" like the Kaufman's had with Raun have such a journey and set of learnings to convey, and they are not, all I can say is why are they hiding their light under a bushel basket? Let us hear your story, and evaluate it on our own. I will be forever grateful to the Kaufman's for all of the efforts they have made on our behalf and on the behalf of all the special children and families they have helped become more happy.
Samantha, I am sure you are not the first one to question the financial arrangement of the Institute. I personally wish that every parent of a special child could have access to Son Rise, and that it could be part of a "Free, Appropriate Public Education" to which each child in the United States is entitled to under the law. It is certainly a lot less expensive than the applied behavioral analysis programs and legal fees that the school districts are paying for. But until that happens, the Option Institute can use donations, just like private educational institution can, so that it can hold down its fees and give scholarships.
: Thanks again for all of you help!!!
Thanks for your questions. Please email me if I can be of more help.
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