Perseverance Behind an Autistic Student's Determination to Graduate

Joshua McGovern, 18,  is your average teenager. He spends time on Facebook, hangs out with his buddies and has plans to attend college.

Behind the Attleboro teen's interest in surfing the Web and posting comments on the popular social network, he is an autistic boy with ambition, creativity and a focus to succeed. 

Pam and Michael McGovern have achieved one of their biggest goals for their son by providing him with the resources he needed to graduate high school, which he will do this year from the League School of Greater Boston, a school that provides social and academic services to students ages 3 through 22 with ASD or Asperger's syndrome.

"We knew from day one that to get him to be self sufficient we would do whatever we needed to," said Pam McGovern, Joshua's mother.

For the McGoverns, that started at an early age when Joshua was reading before he could say mom or dad.

"We just knew," Michael McGovern said of his son.

It was at the age of two when the McGoverns first noticed differences in Joshua and by three they knew he had an autism spectrum disorder.

The McGoverns decided early on they would be their son's biggest advocates and in collaboration with the school, they created a program that would include peer role models in the classroom.

"It was a classroom of no more than 12 role models and no more than three students on the autism spectrum," Pam McGovern said. McGovern benefited from the program until the fourth grade. 

When it was time for McGovern to attend middle school, his parents were faced with another challenge: the program would not be available to their son in middle school. The McGoverns again took matters into their own hands.

"It wasn't in the school's best interest to do that so we hired an education advocate to find new opportunities," Michael McGovern said. "We had to look at what was best for Joshua."

"His parents have been super advocates for him and very supportive in helping him obtain all of his goals," said Patrick Fuller,  the League School's Coordinator of Public Schools and Parent Relations.

The Attleboro School's decision to send McGovern out of district "was a blessing," according to his mother. The McGoverns said they are thankful for the League School's ability to provide the proper resources and education to each individual student. 

"The League School has been amazing," Pam McGovern said. "The staff has been amazing.

"They are passionate and are educated on autism spectrum," she added. "And the class sizes are so small that they were able to teach the kids at their own individual level."

Because of the League School's attention to McGovern's Individual Education Plan (IEP) and the Attleboro School District's efforts, McGovern completed his MCAS, which is required to graduate, and will receive his diploma in the coming months. 

"It is really a team approach working with the students, parents and school district and all of our staff," Fuller said. " You are coming together at least on a yearly basis to pinpoint and focus on skills that will have positive, long-term effects."

Joshua is excited to be graduating, but admits he'll miss his friends back at the League. The plan to transition from the League School to college includes taking online classes at , according to Joshua McGovern. 

"We are looking at Curry College, Dean and BCC," he said. 

Why does he plan to attend college?

"So I can have a future in drawing and writing," he said. In fact, McGovern is already on the path to succeed and has completed 159 pages of his book. While some of his peers can be a little loud for his own liking, Joshua wanted others to know that kids with autism are just like everyone else. 

McGovern's graduation will be bittersweet for Fuller, who was Joshua's first teacher at the League School.

"He has come such a long way," Fuller said. "He’s worked hard and he is a tremendous young man. Here at League we will all miss him."