Extended school year

My son is almost 9yo and autistic. Every year we send him to his ESY program through the school. Its usually a week long and about 3 hrs a day and they just...??? Some days he would get home early bc they just ran out of ideas of stuff to do? Im not kidding. He would get home early and the bus driver would tell us they just decided to send them early?

Anyway. A few years ago I found out about this program about an hour away from us. At the time I couldn't get him in bc he wasn't potty trained and it was just easier to send him to the school ESY.

This year i decided to apply and he got in! Its like a real camp and its covered by the district. He gets to do swimming 2x a week. They go on field trips. And its 8-2:30 so he leaves around 7:30 and gets back around 3. My husband is fully wfh and I have a hybrid schedule so while we make it work its not the best for anyone when we can't do anything with him.

He seems to really love "camp"! I was really worried they wouldn't be able to handle him bc we have had issues in the past of schools not utilizing his behavior plan or just not trying at all with him. I was so sure we would get a call on the first day asking us to pick him up. But every day the teacher tells us he had a great day! Im just so happy he gets to have a "typical" camp experience because its something I thought we could never provide for him.

It was a lot of paperwork and emailing and calling and stress and we were worriedabouthim beingso far fromus. But im so happy!