For the past 5yrs of dealing with the school board and Individualized Education Plan - IEP teams, it took forever to get my son in the right setting. My son's self-esteem was in jeopardy also. My son will be attending this fall. This is a big cost factor, but after dealing with the public school, this was my only solution, to put him in a private school. Some schools are geared to meet the needs of children with learning problems.
Some schools are very conservative and the emphasis is on strict regimentation.
So it depends on the individual child's needs. I would look for a school, public or private, where the emphasis is on a child's strengths. School officials who are easily intimidated are usually school officials who are either uninformed as to what they must do, or they are in personal ivory towers and have a great fear of losing control. A child in need cannot afford such an attitude. What must happen is to put aside other considerations and focus on the needs of the child and what teachers need to be successful with that child.