Trying to get services. Was: Changing a diagnosis

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> No he gets no services. We are having ards because we are

requesting evaluations and they are coming back that even they agree

that he is at a 3 yr old on some of his skills. They are telling us

he doesn't qualify for nothing. My sister took him to Texas childrens

and they have found that he needs a great deal of services to be able

to succeed. He cannot even write his name but the school refuses to

admit he needs any help. The school psychologist gave him a diagnosis

of PDD-NOS at the age of 3. But when he aged out of ECI services she

says he was cured and needed no more help. It has been an uphill

battle with them. She even takes him to physical therapy on her own

because the school refused to even give him that. He constantly toe

walks, has rages, is on medication and we are worried for his safety

at school. Nobody seems to take us serious.

Hi Tammie. I'm the one in Texas with the 13yo aspie. I had to do

quite a bit of legal research and networking to get my own child a

504 (he is fairly mild). We also went through the ARD process to try

to get an IEP twice, so I am also familiar with that also. We aren't

really done with that. My son did not need any accommodations until

he was about 10yo, and each year after that he has needed more and

more. Anyway, we were totally poo-pooed at first, so I'll tell you

how we got past all that and you can see if there is anything you

don't already know or haven't tried yet. Gee, I'll try to keep this

short LOL!

First of all, you must submit all your requests in writing. In

particular, you must request a " full and individual special education

evaluation " and provide reasons why and what areas you want tested.

Your district can tell you what particular person you must submit

this to and let you know if there is a form to fill out.

When you make this request in writing, it starts a federally-imposed

timeline. They have about 3 months to: either do the testing or

inform you in writing as to why not; complete the testing; decide if

your child is disabled; come up with an initial IEP/placement plan if

the child is disabled. I DON'T remember the exact timeframe since it

has been awhile, but it is something like that. There are legal

guidelines as to who should be on the ARD; it includes the parent, of

course. Something that may be missing from yours--they must include

someone capable of understanding the evaluations.

I wasted TWO YEARS because I did not understand that I had to request

IN WRITING. The assistant principal kept telling me my son wasn't

eligible for any services. But the minute I made my request in

writing, they dropped all the BS and did it.

Ask your district SPED office who you are supposed to go to if there

are problems with your ARD, say you and the school are not agreeing

(besides filing for due process). In my case, it was the assistant

SPED director. I have talked to her a couple of times and she has

helped me iron out some things. For example, the last half of

elementary I had problems with teachers treating my son's

disabilities like bad behavior, you know, giving him lunchtime

detentions when he wouldn't do things for them in the middle of being

visibly stressed out. I let her know they were punishing him for

behaviors due to his disability, she said she would talk to the

principal, and it stopped and has never ocurred since.

Your nephew's mom (and you) need to make sure you present your

private evals, again in writing, as part of material to be considered

at either a SPED eval or an IEE. You don't want to just give it to

them to discuss without any particular purpose, and you need to make

sure the fact that you want it to be considered in your

nephew/daughter's consideration for special ed services is submitted

in writing.

Document everything you are discussing as much as possible. For

example, to explain how my son's disabilities affect school, I timed

how long it took me to get him started on his homework every night

(he has initiation problems), how long it took him to do his

homework, and how many hours I spent every week re-teaching him,

contacting teachers for clarification, etc. I did this for several

weeks. The time I spent was pretty impressive, and it got their

attention. They had no idea what I was going through at home.

Since the experience with the assistant principal BSing me like that,

whenever the school is fuzzy, I call the district SPED office for

clarification. Not only are they better at answering questions, but

they immediately notify the school that I called and had concerns,

and whoever is lagging usually gets it more together.

I e-mail the teacher and copy the supervising assistant principal

whenever there are problems in school that may affect my child's

grade or learning. I let them know what my child is telling me/what

I am seeing, explain why this is a problem, explain any peculiarities

of my child/AS that they may not know about, suggest a solution if it

seems appropriate, etc. Sometimes this is going on on a daily basis

with every single teacher (we're talking jr high school here).

Believe me, this gets their attention. They'll probably do something

about it. What exactly, depends on the personalities I'm sure. In

my case, it has helped get things done, although I'm certainly never

a favorite with the teachers. And this is a work in progress. I'm

working on how to do this without being so annoying! I'm hoping my

introductory letter can be more informative this year.

And lastly, write an introductory letter for your kids and send it to

the teachers before school starts--as soon as you find out who the

teachers are--include a description of their disabilities, their

strengths and weaknesses, what they particularly struggle with, what

problems other teachers have had, what solutions other teachers have

had, etc.

Hope this helps!

Ruth