Wake to provide aide to help keep child with autism from running from school
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wake County approved an aide to monitor a child with autism prone to eloping.
- Heritage Elementary requested support after repeated incidents of bolting.
- Class staffing levels fell this year, prompting concerns about student safety.
A Wake County mother says the school system has agreed to provide an extra instructional assistant to try to keep her 6-year-old daughter with autism from running out of the school again.
Arya Futch has a history of running away from her teachers, including on Aug. 25 making it a half-mile down the greenway from Heritage Elementary School in Wake Forest. On Friday, her mother, Brittany, said Heritage Elementary Principal Amy Harmon informed her that the district approved the school’s request to place an additional person in the classroom to watch Arya.
“It’s very relieving,” Brittany Futch said in an interview Friday with The News and Observer. “I feel safer sending her to school. It’s been almost two years now that we’ve been begging for an aide with all of her eloping.”
The school district did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.
History of running away from school
Arya is a kindergarten student who spends most of the school day in an Elementary Behavior Support classroom with other special-needs students. Like many children diagnosed with autism, Arya has issues with wandering, also called elopement or bolting.
School records show dozens of instances where Arya has tried to wander off from her teachers and classmates. In August 2024, it took three to six school employees to chase her down after she ran outside the school.
According to her school records, an adult must hold Arya’s hand during every transition in the classroom. An adult must sit next to or behind Arya in class and must follow her and always be within arm’s reach of her during outside time such as on the playground.
Last school year, Arya’s classroom had three instructional assistants to help the teacher supervise the students. But this school year started with only two instructional assistants helping the teacher.
On Aug. 25, an instructional assistant caught up with Arya before she could hop down from a bridge into the rushing waters below. Brittany Futch had warned the school she’d hold them accountable for anything that happened to Arya because her daughter has repeatedly said she wants to run onto the greenway and go into the water below the bridges.
Schools get positions for staff based on how many students they enroll. Heritage is under-enrolled, so it needed district approval to get the extra instructional assistant for Arya’s classroom.
