I am an inner city secondary student, but have worked also in junior high as a special needs teacher. Here is my .02 (and worth no more than that!):

1) It sounds like your classroom is mainstream for this student. There should be an IEP for this student, and a teaching assistant or education assistant who is with the child at all times in the classroom, if you are in public education, or the equivalent of those things if you work in a British or Australian system. If you work in what in the US is known as a private school, the requirements may not be as stringent.

2) I agree with the advice to contact your union. I hope yours is good. Realize though, that we often have to advocate for ourselves, both with the administration and with the union.

3) I think the child should have been removed from your classroom for the day. In my school, assaults by students, spec ed or not, are always taken seriously, and the child is always removed for the day. They certainly aren't allowed back into the classroom! If the student has to wait for the family to arrive, the administration should deal with where the child should wait until they do.

4) The child should be suspended, probably at least for one full day (not counting the day of incident), but I'll feel more comfortable with a 2 day if there has never been a violent incident in the past, or very recent past.

5) Definitely document what happened in whatever way your school and district requires you to do it. Sometimes that means filing a police report. It is shocking to find out that some districts require that even for 8 year olds, much less autistic kids, but there you have it.

6) Definitely see a doctor and have your knee checked out.

7) My district actually has counseling services for educators as a benefit, and a referral system to get you to counselors who deal with job related stress cases all the time. Do some checking, but if you feel you need counseling, go for it. But if you find you don't like the first counselor, find another that you do like, feel safe and comfortable with.

8) My sister is an AP in the same district as me. She was injured trying to break up a fight between two girls. It took her the better part of 6-9 months to completely "recover". Remember, you need to NOT intellectualize your feelings too much. An assault on you is an assault, regardless of the age and special needs status of the person who assaulted you. Your job isn't to think in those terms. You need to think about recovering your sense of equilibrium, in order to get beyond your victimization.

Autistic kids can be some of the most challenging to work with, but they can also be very rewarding to help and just to know, as someone above said. It sounds like you were on the challenged end of the deal that day! My best advice is, try and keep your sense of humor about the incident, even if it's grim, and not PC. We educators do need vent about our little angels when this kind of thing happens (away from our work setting, of course), and dark, edgy humor helps us do it in the same way it does for people who work on the front lines in medicine. It can be a great stress reliever.

My guess is this hit you emotionally so hard, because you were kicked in a physical spot, your knee, where you already feel vulnerable due to your recent surgery. But remember, if you had a full recovery from the surgery, and had been feeling pretty good with it, you are very likely going to be physically good as new in a few days. As others said, if you feel the need, use sick time. And when you go back in to the classroom with this kid, wear your knee pads! ;-)