Re: Some questions about school services

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Hummm, you didn't mention a Service Coordinator, are you acting as your own SC? When parents request exams or testing that is out of the norm (like an eval more often than 1/3 yrs) the school will often agree if the requesting parent will pay for it. Some of those tests are VERY costly. I have also seen times when the school will charge the parents for the assessment materials, and not for the man hours required to administer them. If you have a Service Coordinator, this is a good time to use them. If you are acting in that capacity, you need to feel them out. Can you get to someone in administration, someone who is at a level higher than the guidance counselor? Let them know that you are doing transition planning and you'd like to nail down present levels in two areas ASAP.

Typically the IFSP "team" work together to make changes to the IFSP, but it sounds like you're pretty much the whole team... do I have the right read on this?? In which case, you can make all the changes you'd like, but if you don't have the "team" to back you up, you may be met with some friction when you try to implement those changes.

Most all the materials used are paid for by the district. There is a lengthy paper trail for any reimbursement requests of materials purchased beyond those which are pre approved. It might be worth your while to make an appointment with the speech pathologist so she can get familiar with your son. She may feel she needs to work with him to a level of comfort before she can accurately do any milestone checks to assess his level.

While you're there, ask for the materials that you wish to reproduce. (She may have purchased them herself, but she did that because she believed in their usefulness so she should be GLAD to share them with you.) Offer to make the copies while she works with your son.

Also, I wouldn't wait a month for some resource suggestions. If you haven't heard form her after a week, fire off an email asking her what recommendations she has for you.

You've got your hands full, I was exhausted just reading that !! GL ! Kate

From: <ladle24@...>Subject: ( ) Some questions about school services Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 9:18 PM

Hi, I have some questions about school services which I don't know if anyone on here has any experiences with. I just dread spending hours on the phone being transferred to various people who don't know the answer.We homeschool our 5yo aspie, b/c there wasn't really an ideal classroom fit with the school for him. His reading, math and general knowledge are several grades ahead, but everything else is backwards...we are pretty sure he is hyperlexic.As homeschoolers, he is eligible for speech through proportionate share, and has an IFSP (which may still be blank, due to transferring between school after the eval but before the IFSP was complete...I need to get a copy of it).1. I know that IEP meetings can be convened as necessary, but what about in the case of an IFSP?2. I know that re-evals are every 3 years, but that parents or teachers can request a re-eval (in writing?) sooner than

that. I have been working almost exclusively and intensively with him on speech and language development (since I see that as the key to solving most other areas of challenge with him), more than the school could ever put into him. He has made amazing progress (compared to himself) this year. We are considering moving overseas, and, at the end of the school year, I want to find out if this intensive work has helped bring him more mainline, to close the gap between him and average, so to speak, so I can have an idea of what to expect if we move overseas and away from support services. When he was evaluated a year ago, his WPPSI verbal score, and the speech language scores were in the borderline range, closely correlated. I would like them to retest him in these areas, but when I asked the guidance counselor about it, she gave a less-than-enthused response. "You mean you want a full re-eval?" I did not ask for a full reeval,

but those two tests. I don't need to hear from the nurse, the social worker, or the autism specialist, just the speech pathologist and the psychologist. If I request those, do they have to do them? For now, they just seem to be trying to shove me off. My guess is, that I know these cost money, and that if we are homeschooling, the school is not getting any money for our son, so they don't want to do these.3. It seems like the speech pathologists buy a lot of their stuff with their own money? Is that true? I know that school districts, if they have homeschool families who want to use their curriculum, have to provide the curriculum. But what about when it comes to special services? If the speech pathologist has a book (of reproducible activities) that I would like to use with my son, doesn't she/shouldn't she let me photocopy them (on my own dime no less!) so that I don't have to buy the book AND photocopy them

myself? She made it sound like it had to be in the IFSP, which brings me back to question #1. Can we just change it when necessary?4. Even though we could bring him to see the speech pathologist for 1 hour per week, we don't do that. It is not an effective use of our time, and she is not intimately aware of my son's issues like I am. That said, I would like a few simple helpful things: a milestone check sheet or something in the speech/language realm so that I can know how far off track my son is, and to help me to choose where to focus my energies with him, since I spend several hours per week working on these things with him (after having done my own research). The speech pathologist also gave some helpful recommendations of activities to do with him, and I asked her if there were any books she could recommend for me to use to accomplish those activities. I just have this sinking feeling that she won't

take the time to find those recommendations for me. I don't think I am asking for too much!!! I could bring him in for an hour every week, but I don't. We have visited with her ONCE this whole school year. I just want a list and a few recommendations so I can take care of this myself, but I also don't want to rub things the wrong way and be a disagreeable parent. If a month goes by, and she has nothing for me, am I back to question #1, trying to get this added to the IFSP?Thanks so much!------------------------------------

[Guest guest]

I always thought that the IFSP stopped at age 3 when pre-school started (and then, the IEP took over)? Is that just my state? Pam, you out there with an answer?

Anyway, I don't think they differ all that much and they have the same purpose. Yes, they need to pay for an evaluation for speech. You might try a more direct approach, "He needs a yearly speech evaluation, who do I contact to set that up?" vs. asking "if" they will give him one. yes, it is most likely money that causes these people to freeze up and not know the answers. That is why using the direct approach might help because you aren't asking "IF" they will but when and how.

Yes, request a meeting as you feel the need to do so. You should have a person in charge of your ds's case (case manager) who would know the answers to your questions and who you can call to get answers. But if you don't and/or that person is not so great at their job, ask for a meeting and having one at least yearly is not a big thing to be asking for.

Also regarding testing, doing testing every 3 years (the "multi-factored evaluation") is required. But many times, regular yearly testing (or more often depending on the problem and service) is done. After all, you can't wait 3 years to see if ST is working ok or not. That would be disastrous! So we always have had yearly ST testing done as a matter of course. Is his therapy working? Is he making advancements? Is he getting farther behind? You have to know the answers in order to plan his therapy from year to year and in some cases, even more often. So this is not an odd thing for you to request at all.

You mostly sound to me like you do not want direct services but rather, consulting services. Consultation can be a part of his IEP/IFSP and should be written in to the IEP like any other service. It may not be done because you have done the work on your own vs. attended a formal therapy. Then, they might think you are out there "on your own." But whatever anyone thinks, you can ask for an eval and also, request to have "consulting" put on the IEP/IFSP with the ST. Say, once a month or something - you can sit down with the ST and go over any issues you have, concerns, get idea to try, discuss his progress, etc. This is perfectly acceptable to request so don't hesitate and get it in writing so you can do just that!

I don't know how it works for homeschoolers getting materials from the therapist. But it seems to me that any of your needs would be provided via the IEP (supplies, therapies, consultations, testing, etc.) This can be discussed during your monthly consulting sessions too. And don't forget, if he has an IEP/IFSP, someone is getting funding for him somewhere.

Roxanna

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." E. Burke

( ) Some questions about school services

Hi,

I have some questions about school services which I don't know if anyone on here has any experiences with. I just dread spending hours on the phone being transferred to various people who don't know the answer.

We homeschool our 5yo aspie, b/c there wasn't really an ideal classroom fit with the school for him. His reading, math and general knowledge are several grades ahead, but everything else is backwards...we are pretty sure he is hyperlexic.

As homeschoolers, he is eligible for speech through proportionate share, and has an IFSP (which may still be blank, due to transferring between school after the eval but before the IFSP was complete...I need to get a copy of it).

1. I know that IEP meetings can be convened as necessary, but what about in the case of an IFSP?

2. I know that re-evals are every 3 years, but that parents or teachers can request a re-eval (in writing?) sooner than that. I have been working almost exclusively and intensively with him on speech and language development (since I see that as the key to solving most other areas of challenge with him), more than the school could ever put into him. He has made amazing progress (compared to himself) this year. We are considering moving overseas, and, at the end of the school year, I want to find out if this intensive work has helped bring him more mainline, to close the gap between him and average, so to speak, so I can have an idea of what to expect if we move overseas and away from support services. When he was evaluated a year ago, his WPPSI verbal score, and the speech language scores were in the borderline range, closely correlated. I would like them to retest him in these areas, but when I asked the guidance counselor about it, she gave a less-than-enthused response

.. "You mean you want a full re-eval?" I did not ask for a full reeval, but those two tests. I don't need to hear from the nurse, the social worker, or the autism specialist, just the speech pathologist and the psychologist. If I request those, do they have to do them? For now, they just seem to be trying to shove me off. My guess is, that I know these cost money, and that if we are homeschooling, the school is not getting any money for our son, so they don't want to do these.

3. It seems like the speech pathologists buy a lot of their stuff with their own money? Is that true? I know that school districts, if they have homeschool families who want to use their curriculum, have to provide the curriculum. But what about when it comes to special services? If the speech pathologist has a book (of reproducible activities) that I would like to use with my son, doesn't she/shouldn't she let me photocopy them (on my own dime no less!) so that I don't have to buy the book AND photocopy them myself? She made it sound like it had to be in the IFSP, which brings me back to question #1. Can we just change it when necessary?

4. Even though we could bring him to see the speech pathologist for 1 hour per week, we don't do that. It is not an effective use of our time, and she is not intimately aware of my son's issues like I am. That said, I would like a few simple helpful things: a milestone check sheet or something in the speech/language realm so that I can know how far off track my son is, and to help me to choose where to focus my energies with him, since I spend several hours per week working on these things with him (after having done my own research). The speech pathologist also gave some helpful recommendations of activities to do with him, and I asked her if there were any books she could recommend for me to use to accomplish those activities. I just have this sinking feeling that she won't take the time to find those recommendations for me. I don't think I am asking for too much!!! I could bring him in for an hour every week, but I don't. We have visited with her ONCE this whole sc

hool year. I just want a list and a few recommendations so I can take care of this myself, but I also don't want to rub things the wrong way and be a disagreeable parent. If a month goes by, and she has nothing for me, am I back to question #1, trying to get this added to the IFSP?

Thanks so much!